The friendly matchup between Scotland and England on Tuesday, according to manager Steve Clarke, will serve as the ideal gauge of his team’s development.
After winning all five of their qualifiers, Scotland is on the verge of qualifying for Euro 2024 and has improved 20 spots to 30th in the world rankings under Clarke.
In his lifetime, he noted, “England has somewhat surpassed Scotland.”
We’ll find out on Tuesday how much of a gap we’ve closed on them, but we’re attempting to close it.
Because certain players from the same club will be competing against one another on the international stage, the Scotland manager anticipates “a competitive friendly, if you can have such a thing” at Hampden Park.
He thinks the sequence of games—Scotland vs. England, Spain in an away qualifier, then a friendly against France in October—will hasten his players’ development in preparation for what is now a very possible Euro 2024 campaign.
Although their spot in the summer’s finals might possibly be guaranteed on Tuesday if Norway and Georgia drew in Oslo, Scotland needs just two points from their last three qualifiers to ensure their attendance at back-to-back European Championships.
The former Scotland right-back claimed, “You get better the more you play against the elite teams.
“This is the development of a group of young men that we kept together as they grew up. We continue to get better.
“I have a few things I want to see on the field against England, testing us against top competition, which we will face more frequently in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.
Clarke responded, “we like him too, so now he has a choice to make,” when questioned about England’s desire to sign Elliot Anderson after the Newcastle United midfielder withdrew from Scotland’s team for the qualifier against Cyprus and Tuesday’s friendly.
Team news Clarke states that “everyone is fit and available” and has no concerns about injuries.
After serving as replacements in last Saturday’s victory in Cyprus, Ryan Christie, Stuart Armstrong, and Lyndon Dykes might start.
Callum McGregor of Scotland, a midfielder, quoted them as saying: “The players want to win the game as much as the fans do. England is in a fantastic time right now, and so are we. We’ll let folks judge how close or how far we are after the game.
It won’t be an overzealous, crazy kind of game. To reduce the length of time they have the ball, we’ll dominate the game and strive to get a good portion of it.
“The work we’re doing every time we come away, getting more unified, is why the group has become better and better and picked up some really good results. We are always changing.
statistic for the match
This game is being held to mark the 150th anniversary of the teams’ goalless draw in their first meeting on November 30, 1872. England has won 48 of the meetings, while Scotland has won 41.
Only one of the previous 12 meetings—a 1-0 home loss in the Euro 2000 play-off—has ended in a loss for England (W8 D3). Since a 1-0 loss in May 1985, they have gone 4-0 (W2 D2) in their games at Hampden.
Scotland has won the last six consecutive games and has only lost one of their last 19 home games overall (W14 D4). They last had a lengthier home victory streak of seven games between August 1995 and April 1997.
Although one of those was the 1-1 tie against Ukraine in their most recent game, England has only given up a first-half goal in two of their last 12 games. The last time they did so was in back-to-back games against Belgium and Denmark in October 2020.
Scotland has won five games in a row while scoring at least two goals while winning 15 of their past 21 games (D3 L3).
Four of England’s last six away games have ended in losses (W2 D2 L2), which is the same number as in their previous 13 away games (W9 D2 L2).
In his last three home games for Scotland, Scott McTominay has scored five goals. Kris Boyd, who scored in each of his first four appearances at home in September 2007, was the previous player to score in four straight home games.
In his previous 28 England appearances, Harry Kane has contributed to 30 goals with 24 goals and 6 assists. Having already scored against Scotland in June 2017, he may become the first starting England captain to net against them more than once.
