World Cup qualification: BFB opponents on rise in Scotland

Team owner Steve Clarke clarified: “We don’t want to be satisfied with the start of the European Championship, we also want to be in Qatar.” After a start against the BFB team, Scotland will continue with the away match. On Sunday against Israel, the next Wednesday awaited the home game against the Faroe Islands.

At number 48 in the world rankings – Austria is ranked 23rd – with Israel having good memories. In October of last year, the Scots won the European Championship play-off semi-final against a team monitored by Willie Ruttensteiner on penalties, a month after they again prevailed on away penalties against the Serbs, who were given too high a status.

For the third time in a European Championship

This marked the third participation in the European Championship. Earlier, the Scots qualified for the European Championships in 1992 and 1996. In addition, he competed in the World Championships eight times (1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1998). Scotland did not survive the group stage in any of these ten tournaments.

That should change in the summer. In EM you will meet in Group D in Glasgow in the Czech Republic and Croatia and in England in London. For these games, Clarke is hoping for the support of fans, who are still locked up against Austria due to the coronovirus epidemic. “This is a huge setback for us. Hopefully, EM will also change when more than 57 people are now vaccinated, ”said the 57-year-old coach, who has been in office since 2019 and who himself received the first dose of the vaccine two weeks ago.

McTomen and Robertson in the window

Its squad mainly consists of players who work in the Scottish House of Lords or England. Not all England have giants with Premier League clubs, but Clarke has two players in top clubs. Midfielder Scott McTominay is a regular at Manchester United, as is the left-hander Andy Robertson at Liverpool.

Ralph Hasenhottles Southampton striker Chey Adams was called up for the first time. The 24-year-old played for England’s U20 team and has now opted for Scotland. This was possible because of his Scottish grandparents. From Adams, Clarke expected an uptick in offensive play. “We haven’t scored enough goals lately, which has to be changed,” the coach said. The Scots scored only six goals in their eight international matches in 2020.

Scots no longer kneel

The national team will get away with one of the usual gestures before the game on Thursday. Since the start of the season in Scottish professional football, like England, players and coaches have knelt before every match to protest racism. It should be at least at the national team level.

Clarke said on the subject, “In the beginning it was a really powerful symbol. But I think it may be a little less now. “In the future,” people will stand with solidarity in the fight against racism. Everyone can be woken up by standing up so that they can see that racism does not go away while you sleep, ”said Clarke.

Recently, Celtic and Rangers waived this gesture in the Glasgow derby. Two weeks ago, Crystal Palace star Wilfred Zaha became the first Premier League player to bend his knees before a game. Both times, the reason was that the action had lost its importance and nothing had changed about the problem of racism.