The last time England played Scotland in a competitive match was in November 1999, as both teams reached the play-offs in an attempt to qualify for Euro 2000. Both teams finished second in their group and were drawn together in the play-offs. England won the first leg in Scotland, 2-0 but the Scot’s travelled to Wembley and caused a big upset, winning the match 1-0. Although it wasn’t enough to see them qualify, it was a great result.
Scotland head back to Wembley in 2016, with their chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup also very slim. Having been held at home by Lithuania and comfortably defeated in Slovakia, Scotland are already up against it in their pursuit of Russia.
Scotland travel to Wembley ranked 57th in the world by FIFA. To put this in perspective, that places them below the likes of Congo, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Albania and Peru. England would expect to beat any of those teams at Wembley but this is more than a match between two teams attempting to win points in a qualifying group. It is about the passion and pride of playing for your country. Something which the England players have been criticised for not having enough of in recent times.
When Charlie Nicholas was asked to pick his combined England and Scotland XI for this game, he did not include a single Scottish player. This is an example of just how far behind England the Scottish team are, on paper at least. Thankfully for the Scots, the match is not played on paper and they will hope England’s players crumble under the pressure, just as they did in Euro 2016 against Iceland.
Scotland will be seeing this as a one-off match, like a cup final, whereas for England it is another step on their road to qualification for the World Cup and it’s this attitude, which could make the difference. The Scottish players know, if they can remain in the game for as long as possible, the home crowd will become frustrated. England have not played well in their three games so far and are still recovering from their embarrassment at Euro 2016 and the loss of manager, Sam Allardyce.
Although Scotland failed to qualify for Euro 2016, they put in some good performances, against strong teams, in what was a very difficult qualifying group They lost both games to Germany by 1 goal and held Poland to a draw, both home and away. Scotland also defeated the Republic of Ireland at home and took a point off them away, so they can compete with good teams. In their last World Cup qualifying campaign, Scotland defeated Croatia home and away, a team England have struggled against in the past.
England are strong favourites to win this game but they were strong favourites to defeat Iceland in the summer. Scotland will be up for this game and as things stand in the group, have very little to lose. Will England show up or will they buckle under the expectation, as they have many times before?