Beating Scotland would be an ‘old-fashioned statement’ says Gareth Southgate
Meetings between England and Scotland were regular occurrences before the turn of the century but the teams have only met seven times in the last couple of decades.
England last tasted defeat in this fixture in 1999 which shows how far ahead of Scotland the Three Lions have pushed themselves in the early 21st century.
Gareth Southgate has described the prospect of winning Tuesday’s derby as an “old-fashioned statement”.
“You’re testing yourself, proving yourself, learning as a team and representing the nation,” said Southgate.
“We see it as a really good test of us as a team. You’re playing a high level opponent in a really intimidating atmosphere and they’re the nights that have been important in our growing process.
“It’s a challenge that we’ve got to head towards and relish. We have huge ambition as a team but also have a lot of work to do.”
Gareth Southgate hails Evan Ferguson and confirms England interest in Newcastle starlet
Evan Ferguson has never given Gareth Southgate “any inkling” he would have been open to switch from Ireland, but the England manager did admit their interest in Elliot Anderson, who has just pulled out of the Scotland squad.
Southgate similarly revealed that the Football Association had pursued whether Erling Haaland would play.
Ferguson’s sensational form for Brighton, including a hat-trick against Newcastle this month, has naturally seen renewed discussion over whether he could change nationalities, since he does have an English mother, something that is now actually impossible due to the fact he has played sufficient games for Ireland.
Southgate hails Ferguson and confirms England interest in Newcastle starlet
Southgate has discussed England’s process surrounding the Brighton striker, Erling Haaland and the battle with Scotland to secure Elliot Anderson’s international future
Scotland want to close the gap on England
Scotland manager Steve Clarke says this evening’s friendly against England will be the perfect sign of the progress his team has made.
They are almost guaranteed to reach Euro 2024 after winning all five qualifiers so far and have risen 20 places to 30th in the world ranking since Clarke took over the reigns.
“In my lifetime, England have moved a bit in front [of Scotland],” he said. “We are trying to close the gap on them and we’ll find out on Tuesday how much we’ve closed that gap.”
Scotland vs England
Scotland vs England is the oldest fixture in international football and tonight’s meeting of the teams will throw up the latest mix of sporting drama and intrigue 150 years on from their first encounter.
The gulf between the sides has varied over their long history but both nations meet at Hampden Park for this celebratory heritage match in a contest that will be harder to call than initially expected.
England are of course the favourites to win but the last meeting of the sides ended in a 0-0 draw at Wembley in Euro 2020. Gareth Southgate’s men went all the way to the final in that competition – eventually losing a penalty shootout to Italy – but it was Scotland who posed the biggest threat to the Three Lions.
Can they do so again tonight?
England to resist Republic of Ireland approach for Lee Carsley
The Football Association will resist any attempt from Ireland to appoint England under-21 manager Lee Carsley, should Irish boss Stephen Kenny be sacked.
Ireland have just suffered successive defeats to France and Netherlands and while those would otherwise be respectable performances, they come on the back of a series of poor results that have now all but ended the hopes of Euro 2024 qualification.
While Kenny is widely expected to be given the rest of this campaign, a failure to claim a play-off place – which is now dependent on results in other groups – could well end three difficult years in charge of the Irish team.
England to resist Republic of Ireland approach for Lee Carsley
The former Irish international is building an impressive managerial career after securing England’s first under-21 European Championships victory in 39 years this summer
Scotland vs England prediction
Scotland, who are in terrific form, sense the opportunity and occasion to celebrate having earned a narrow victory over an underpar England team who are still searching for answers ahead of next year’s Euro 2024.
Scotland 2-1 England.
Scotland vs England predicted line-ups
Scotland XI: Gunn; Porteous, Hendry, Tierney; Patterson, S Armstrong, McGregor, Robertson; McTominay, McGinn; Dykes.
England XI: Pickford; Trippier, Maguire, Colwill, Chilwell; Gallagher, Rice, Bellingham; Foden, Kane, Rashford.
Latest odds: Scotland win 7/2
Draw 13/5
England win 3/4
Scotland vs England team news
Scotland impressed against Cyprus, but Steve Clarke could use this opportunity to shuffle his pack, with Stuart Armstrong a possible midfield starter and Lyndon Dykes in the mix further forward. Having earned a first call up ahead of the Cyprus game, English-born Newcastle midfielder Elliot Anderson was forced to pull out with an injury.
Gareth Southgate has ruled out sweeping changes to his England side, suggesting it would be “ridiculous” to “over experiment” against a strong Scottish side. That said, Southgate could still use this as a chance to give Chelsea defender Levi Colwill a senior debut and Aaron Ramsdale is expected to start in goal ahead of Jordan Pickford.
How to watch Scotland vs England
Scotland vs England is due to kick off at 7.45pm BST on Tuesday 12 September at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
Viewers in the United Kingdom can watch the game live on Channel 4, with coverage from 7pm BST. A free live stream will also be available on the Channel 4 website and app.
Scotland vs England
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of tonight’s international friendly between Scotland and England at Hampden Park.
The match is a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the oldest fixture in international football. England first took on Scotland in a competitive encounter in November 1872 in a clash that ended 0-0. Since then the two neighbouring countries have faced each other in 115 official fixtures, with the 116th to come tonight in Glasgow.
England are the favourites to win the game but Scotland’s recent run of form has been remarkable and with home advantage they will want to prove they are worthy opponents for Gareth Southgate’s men especially with another European Championship coming up next year.
We’ll have all the build-up, team news and match coverage throughout the evening so stick with us.
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