Even if Scotland fall to defeat against England at Hampden Park on Tuesday evening, there could still be a huge cheer from the home crowd at full time.
Whilst the two auld rivals meet for a 150th anniversary friendly, should Norway and Georgia draw in their Euro 2024 qualifier, then Scotland will have their place in next summer’s tournament booked well ahead of time.
That Scotland, who have collected a maximum 15 points from their group games already, can be one of the first nations to qualify for Euro 2024 only underlines the positive trajectory under Steve Clarke and why England will have to be alert to their threat.
It was only in March that Scotland bloodied Spanish noses and picked up a famous 2-0 victory and confidence appears to be growing amongst the squad. Tuesday’s meeting certainly pits two in-form teams against each other.
England last tasted victory over Scotland during Gareth Southgate’s first year in charge back in 2016. The most recent two matches have ended in tense draws. A late Harry Kane equaliser squashed Scottish celebrations back in 2017 and the Euro 2020 group game at Wembley finished goalless.
Southgate therefore remains unbeaten against Scotland during his time as England manager but believes that Clarke’s side are an improving outfit. “Like all teams as you work for longer, you get more experiences together, you go through big nights together, successes, disappointments,” he said.
“They’ve grown through that and the individual players have got more experience of big matches. They’ve got the confidence from some big results, particularly recent games.”
Whilst Scotland have so far been faultless in their qualifying campaign, England arrive in Glasgow having dropped points for the first time in five qualifiers on Saturday.
Southgate admitted his teams’ attack did not click during the 1-1 draw with Ukraine in Poland, when Kyle Walker’s first international goal cancelled out Oleksandr Zinchenko’s opener, but will not make wholesale changes to his side.
“We’ve got to find the right balance of physical freshness, experience, finding out about some players, winning, playing well, the usual things that are expected of us,” Southgate added.
“The first thing is we can’t fiddle around with the team, because we’re playing a top level side who are going to be at full tilt and giving us a really high level challenge. You can’t overly experiment because that would be ridiculous.”
'A rivalry 150 years in the making'
It is never ‘friendly’ when Scotland and England meet, dating back to 1872 when the first edition ended 0-0. Since then the fixture has been played more than 100 times with England winning 48 and Scotland 41. Southgate’s players will wear a commemorative pre-match shirt bearing the original crest from the first encounter.
“It’s been 150 years in the making so they’re always good games, always competitive games,” said Clarke, whose team have not been triumphant in this fixture since 1999 and not on home soil since 1985.
“In the modern era certainly, in my lifetime England have probably moved a little bit further in front. We’re trying to close the gap on them and we’ll find out tomorrow how much we’ve closed that gap. It will be a competitive friendly, if you can have such a thing.”
When asked for his first recollections of the rivalry, Southgate made a stark admission: “This is horrendous considering we’re playing Scotland tomorrow but I was supporting them in 1978 (at the World Cup) as [England] didn’t qualify.
“I followed that trauma against Peru and Netherlands. And we were back in 1982 and from then onwards it was all about England.
“It’s a great fixture. I’ve met and worked with so many of the players from this fixture over the years. It’s a fabulous game. I know there is a rivalry and people will be worried about it crossing the boundary but it’s a brilliant sporting rivalry.”
Nothing tangible maybe riding on the outcome this week but it will be a good yard-stick for Scotland and a stiff test for England.
“We see it as a test of us as team, in an intimidating atmosphere,” Southgate continued. “Those type of nights have been important to our progress, so it’s going to be great to find out about those who have yet to experience them. It’s a challenge we need to relish.”
