Football’s oldest rivalry is on for Friday, June 18, when England and Scotland cross swords at Wembley Stadium for the 115th time in history. Having been the more successful team over the years, England are expected to deliver and secure a promotion, but will they manage to penetrate Scotland’s defence?
England vs Scotland
When: Friday, June 18 – 20:00 BST
Where: Wembley Stadium in London, England
Weather: Light rain, 14°C
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (SPA)
The 115th edition of the oldest international football rivalry is on the program tonight. England are entering the game as strong favourites, but the Scotts would like nothing better than to get one over the “Auld Enemy.”
The game is played at Wembley, where most of the fans will be rooting for the home team. Speaking of Wembley, this is the venue where both teams seem to like scoring. In fact, there was at least one goal in all of their previous 32 head-to-head bouts on this ground.
The weather won’t be perfect, but both teams are used to playing in the rain. This promises a real spectacle, but who’s going to walk off the pitch as the happier side?
Pumped-Up England Want to Keep on Winning
England are one of the main favourites to lift the EURO 2020 trophy with odds somewhere in the ballpark of 6.00. They showed they deserve to be viewed as such in the first round when they beat the 2018 World Cup runner-up Croatia.
The game ended 1-0 in favor of England, thanks to Raheem Sterling, who scored his 15th goal for the national team. Not too impressive, you might think, but several factors prevented England from getting a more dominant win. For one, the weather was scorching that day, especially during the first half.
Secondly, the media pressure on the England boss was enormous, with many suggesting Southgate would “mess it up”. This can explain why he decided to go with a more conservative approach against Croatia, with two holding midfielders (Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips) in the centre of the pitch.
Another reason for that might be that England’s arguably best centre-back Harry Maguire was out. He still isn’t fully fit, but that shouldn’t worry Southgate much, as Mings and Stones were pretty good at the back.
England wasn’t too impressive in the final third, with only two shots going towards the net in the entire game. Their no.9 Harry Kane had a relatively quiet game before being subbed off in the 82nd minute. This time, however, he should do better. England are expected to be more expressive against Scotland, which means more goal opportunities for the EPL’s top goalscorer.
Scotland Expected to “Park the Bus”
The fact is that Scotland players are just not as good as the English and can’t expect them to dominate this game. Everyone knows this, including their boss Steve Clark, who might want to go with an ultra-defensive approach for tonight.
The Scotts had a better chance of grabbing points in the first round of the tournament, in which they displayed a relatively attacking-minded football. However, it didn’t pay off with the Czech scoring two goals, courtesy of Patrick Schick.
With zero points, Scotland’s chance of advancing to the next stage are slim to none. However, if they could grab a draw tonight, things would change. That’s why we expected them to be as defensive as possible against England.
The Tartan Army will likely enter the match with five men at the back, with Kieran Tierney making his return after missing the first round.
England vs Scotland Betting Picks
Scotland usually don’t concede too many goals. In fact, the last time that they allowed more than two in a game was back in 2019. Still, there’s a caveat – they haven’t played against such a strong opponent as England in a while!
We expect England to prove why they’re one of the title favourites. They should win this one without any problems, probably with several goals in Scotland’s net.
Pick: England -1.50 Asian Handicap – 2.02 at Sportmarket
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