International Friendly
Scotland v Northern Ireland
Tuesday, 26 March 2024 (7.45pm kick-off)
Hampden Park

Scotland continue their build-up to Germany tomorrow night as they welcome old foes Northern Ireland to Hampden Park.

Steve Clarke’s side will be looking to bounce back from defeat to the Netherlands on Friday night, where they matched the home side for the majority of the game and were unlucky not to score any of the multiple chances they created.

While Scotland have not won in any of their last six matches, the four defeats during that run all came to sides ranked in the top eight in the FIFA World Rankings, with only one of those defeats coming in a competitive match against Spain.

Previous Meetings

The two nations have met a grand total of 36 times since their first match nearly 70 years ago. That opening fixture saw the two sides play out a 2-2 draw at Hampden Park in the British Home Championship in front of 46,000 supporters.

Scotland hold the advantage in the meetings between the two nations, having claimed victory on 17 occasions to Northern Ireland’s nine, with 10 draws during that time.

The sides last met nine years ago and a late Christophe Berra goal was  enough to give Scotland a 1-0 victory in a friendly match at Hampden Park. Craig Gordon is the only member of the current squad to have featured in that match, although assistant coach James Morrison did feature as a second half substitute.

Steve Clarke will be hoping to keep the current run of form against Northern Ireland going, Scotland last having lost to the opposition more than 40 years ago, in a 2-0 defeat in Belfast in 1983.

Team News

Scotland have no new injury worries ahead of the match.

Billy Gilmour is set to win his 25th cap for Scotland if he features, while Stuart Armstrong would win his 50th cap. Veteran goalkeeper Craig Gordon would, meanwhile, win his 75th international cap if he were to play.

Pre-match thoughts

Scotland Head Coach Steve Clarke: "The players have reacted well. When we had the debrief about the game, they understood the points I was making. They will take the messages on board and hopefully we can show we are improving.

"Within 24 to 36 hours you are ready for the next game, you are looking for the next game.

"I get the mood among the players that they just want the chance to get on the pitch on Tuesday night and look to improve and maybe put right the things that went wrong for us in the last stages of the game on Friday."

“I’m in no doubt we will get both a good performance and a positive result tomorrow. They are a young team, a progressive team.

"Michael is quite good at talking his team down, but they are very competitive. They don't lose games by a big margin."

Where to watch

The game will be shown live on both Viaplay Sports 1 and BBC Scotland.

Tickets

Tickets are still available for the visit of Northern Ireland to Hampden Park, our final home pre-Euros friendly against Finland and our UEFA Nations League matches this autumn. 

 

You can secure your seat here.