Kick-off: 1945, 11/09/2023
Stadium: Hampden Park
TV: Channel 4
There is arguably no such thing as a friendly between Scotland and England but the long-standing rivals have nothing but pride to play for when they meet at Hampden Park.
Both teams are well on course to qualify for Euro 2024 and can further boost their confidence with victory over their neighbours in a special 150th anniversary heritage match.
The lack of points at stake can hopefully lead to an entertaining contest and over 2.5 goals at 5/6 is the first of our Scotland vs England predictions.
Scots in fine form
Scotland could be celebrating at the end of Tuesday night regardless of the score against England, given that they will qualify for Euro 2024 if Norway and Georgia draw their qualifier in Oslo on the same evening.
Even if that is not the case, Steve Clarke’s men have games against Spain, Georgia and Norway still to come to finish the job if required.
The 3-0 victory over Cyprus on Friday night means Scotland have now won five out of five Group A qualifiers to sit nine points ahead of Spain having played two fixtures more.
Scotland could hardly have been in better form going into the match in Larnaca, having gone eight competitive games unbeaten, including wins over Spain and Norway, and first-half goals from Scott McTominay, Ryan Porteous and John McGinn extended their fine form.
With qualification looking inevitable, Clarke could use this game to assess some of the other options in his squad but we do worry they lack the strength in depth of their neighbours.
These fixtures are usually competitive and there is unlikely to be much in it but we do like 5/2 for an away win by exactly one goal in the Scotland vs England odds.
Rash to make his mark
England are also withing touching distance of next year’s finals in Germany despite having to settle for a 1-1 draw against Ukraine in Poland on Saturday.
That felt like a home game for Ukraine despite being forced to play away from their homeland due to Russia’s ongoing invasion and Southgate is expecting a similar test as England head north of the border for their first friendly since beating the Ivory Coast at Wembley in March 2022.
“We can have everybody in the squad involved for the next one,” Southgate said after 16 successive competitive matches, covering last year’s Nations League campaign, the 2022 World Cup and this qualifying campaign.
“We’ll assess everybody over there over the next 24 to 48 hours because it’s another really good test.
“Another hostile environment, a team that are playing really well. They’re in great form, full of confidence so it’s another important learning step for us.”
One of the players who will hope to feature is Marcus Rashford, who came on as a second-half substitute against Ukraine.
The Manchester United man has netted four goals in his last eight internationals, including the opener in England’s last ‘Battle of Britain’ against Wales at the World Cup in November.
We’re adding Rashford to score first to our Scotland vs England betting tips at 11/2 while a 2-1 away win completes our selections at 29/4.
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