Nations League campaign enters endgame as Scotland aim to maintain momentum

UEFA Nations League A Group 1
Poland v Scotland
PGE Narodowy, Warsaw
Monday, 18 November 2024, kick-off 7.45pm (UK)

Scotland’s inaugural campaign in the UEFA Nations League’s top tier enters endgame tonight, as they look to maintain their positive momentum against Poland.

With confidence high following Friday’s victory over the 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia, Scotland now look to get the victory in Warsaw that would see them finish the group in at least 3^rd place and avoid automatic relegation to Group B.  

Now unbeaten in their two games, having followed up their draw with Portugal – 7^th in the FIFA World rankings – in October with victory over 12^th placed Croatia, Scotland know that they also still have an outside chance of second place if they were to win tonight and the result in the Croatia v Portugal match were to go their way.

Previous Meetings

The two sides last met in the first fixture of this 2024 Nations League campaign at Hampden in September. Scotland clawed back a two-goal deficit at half-time that evening to level the match thanks to goals from Billy Gilmour and Scott McTominay, only to concede a 97^th minute penalty that saw Poland snatch victory.

Although Poland hold the advantage in the head-to-head records between the two sides – with four victories to Scotland’s two over the course of the past 66 years – the setting for this evening’s fixture bodes well for Steve Clarke’s side, with both of Scotland’s wins coming in Warsaw.

The first ever meeting between the nations took place in Warsaw in 1958, a Bobby Collins double giving Scotland a 2-1 victory in a friendly played in front of 70,000 fans.

Scotland would have to wait nearly 60 years for their next victory over Poland, with a Scott Brown strike giving Gordon Strachan’s side the win in another friendly match.

The match, played in front of 41,000 fans in the same venue in which tonight’s fixture will be played, saw Scotland captain Andy Robertson make his international debut as a 67^th minute substitute for Barry Bannan.

Team News

The full squad has travelled to Poland for the match, with all 24 players available for selection.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon will be hoping to pick up his 79^th cap after moving ahead of Alex McLeish into outright fifth place in the all-time caps list on Friday night. Although he missed training yesterday due to a mild virus, Steve Clarke is hopeful that Gordon will be available for selection tonight.

Scotland captain Andy Robertson would move up to joint-third in the caps list if he features tonight, level with Darren Fletcher – in the same stadium in which he made his debut a decade ago.

Pre-Match Thoughts

Scotland Head Coach Steve Clarke: “You never know how a game’s going to turn out when you set up.

“I didn’t know how it was going to play out against Hungary and I don’t know how it’s going to play out (on Monday) night, but I would expect a very open game because Poland like to attack, they like to get forward.

“They have shown they can score goals, they have also shown that they can concede goals. So hopefully it’s a good game and we get the right result.”

Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour: "We know it's a massive game and we know we need to win. The results haven't been good enough but some performances have been good and we've been close and lost at the end.

"We're in a tough group, tough opponents and we know we could have done better in games but sometimes that's what happens in football.

“We can't win everything but for us we want to make it right tomorrow by winning and we will keep pushing."

Where to watch

The match will be streamed free-to-air for viewers in Scotland live with commentary on ViaPlay’s international YouTube, while the Scotland National Team YouTube channel will also stream ViaPlay’s broadcast.