Euro 2024 Qualifying Group A: Preview of Scotland’s upcoming matches

After a successful first attempt at guiding Scotland through European Championship qualification in 2020, Steve Clarke will gather his best 23-man squad to try and book the Tartan Army a place in Germany 2024.

Yet to announce his squad, there has been a lot of support for Clarke to grant some players their first caps, such as, Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney, Liverpool’s Ben Doak and Southampton’s Angus Gunn to have fans dreaming of a refreshed Scotland team.

Scotland will welcome Cyprus and Spain to Hampden at the end of March as they get the ball rolling in Qualifying Group A.

Scotland manager Steve Clarke conducting a press conference at Euro 2020 (Image: Getty)

Scotland open their campaign on 25 March with against Cyprus, a side in which they own a perfect head-to-head record against, winning all seven matches– two of these wins under the reign of Clarke. Cyprus will need to be at their best to pull off a result against Scotland after finishing bottom of their Nation’s League group consisting of Greece, Northern Ireland and Estonia.

Although they boast a player who battles against some of Scotland’s best players every weekend in St Mirren’s Alex Gogic, Cyprus will need their talisman Ioannis Pittas in great form if they want to gain an upset.

Facing a team with one win in their last 10 matches, this should be a comfortable win for Clarke’s side. However, the second match of the campaign should prove far more challenging with Luis de la Fuente’s side visiting Hampden.

Spain have a talented crop of players, no doubt about it, but there are problems behind the scenes that Scotland may wish to capitalise on. After being eliminated by Morocco in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Luis Enrique decided to step down as Spain coach and he was replaced by under 21s head coach Luis de la Fuente.

De la Fuente has already faced a large amount of backlash in his short time as Spain manager due to his decision to leave Sergio Ramos out of the squad to face Scotland, which essentially forced the footballing legend to retire from international football.

The La Furia Roja coach has also faced criticism due to selecting non-Spanish players over Ramos. He opted for Real Sociedad defender Robin Le Normand, who had previously expressed his wish to be capped by France and Argentinian and Osasuna striker Chimy Avila.

If Scotland want to get a result from this match, they will need strong performances Callum McGregor and John McGinn, while Spain’s threat will come from their midfield, which consists of Rodri, Gavi and Liverpool’s Stefan Bajcetic. However, fortunately for Scotland, Barcelona’s Pedri looks a doubt for this fixture.

Scotland’s head-to-head record against Spain isn’t as impressive with three wins out of a possible 13, but a result in this fixture would have the Tartan Army dreaming of a holiday to Berlin.