Scotland vs. England | The Oldest International Match

For sure, the most interesting match of the next round in the qualifiers for The World Cup 2018 in Russia will be between the oldest national teams in the history of football – Scotland and England! That will be the 114th game between these two teams and will take place on 10th June 2017.

The first ever game between Scotland and England dates back to 1872, when it’s actually the first international game in the history of football. The match has taken place on 30th November at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Scotland. It has finished with a 0-0 draw. Since then, The Three Lions have recorded 48 victories, while there have been 41 wins for Scotland. There have been 24 draws in total.

England played Scotland just 7 months ago in one of the last competitive international games of 2016. The Three Lions recorded a precious 3-0 victory at home. Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill scored the goals for England, to secure the three points. Moreover, England have recently been totally dominant over Scotland. The Englishmen have recorded 5 victories in the last 6 games between these two teams!

The situation in the Group F is very complicated to Scotland. They are lying in 4th position with 7 points won from 5 games. The Scotsmen are still in the battle for the playoff position, because they recorded a precious 1-0 home victory against Slovenia in the previous round. However, the campaign isn’t good enough for Scotland so far, as they have dropped points against Slovakia and Lithuania. The only other their victory is against Malta at the start of the qualifiers.

On the other hand, England will pretty sure have no problems to keep the first place in the standings. The Three Lions have recorded 4 victories and a draw, which means they have won 13 points and are 4 ahead of the second-placed Slovakia. However, if England lose the next game it may become interesting in that group, as Slovakia will probably win their visit to Lithuania!

England squad: Joe Hart (Torino, on loan from Manchester City), Jack Butland (Stoke City), Fraser Forster (Southampton), Tom Heaton (Burnley); Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool), Aaron Cresswell (West Ham United), Ben Gibson (Middlesbrough), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Chris Smalling (Man Utd), John Stones (Man City), Kieran Trippier (Tottenham), Kyle Walker (Tottenham); Dele Alli (Tottenham), Eric Dier (Tottenham), Jake Livermore (West Brom) Adam Lallana (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Man Utd), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Man City); Jermain Defoe (Sunderland), Marcus Rashford (Man Utd), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Harry Kane (Tottenham).

Prediction: The English squad is way more classy than the opponent’s. However, in derby matches like this – the individual players’ skills are not of that importance, as like the team’s motivation. The match will be really tight, but I think that eventually The Three Lions will win it by one goal difference.