Scotland’s Gordon Strachan tips England to win Euro 2016

By ALAN PATTULLO
Published 29th Mar 2016, 01:00 BST
Gordon Strachan claims Scotland could be facing the reigning European champions by the time they play England in a Group F World Cup qualifying fixture at the end of this year.

Gordon Strachan claims Scotland could be facing the reigning European champions by the time they play England in a Group F World Cup qualifying fixture at the end of this year.

England’s comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Germany in Berlin on Saturday night raised the prospect they could be among the teams to beat this summer at the Euro 2016 finals in France.

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If Roy Hodgson’s side do claim the title it would mean Scotland being pitted against reigning champions for a second successive qualifying campaign.

By the time the qualifiers for Euro 2016 kicked off ,Germany had become world champions in Brazil, underlining the size of task Scotland faced. Now they could face an even less appealing prospect – taking on England, freshly crowned European champions.

Strachan views this scenario as a challenge, however. “We’ll just have to improve then,” he said yesterday on the eve of Scotland’s home friendly against Denmark. He added: “We’ve got plenty of time.”

Strachan is seeking to make the minor improvements he feels are required to qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018. To do so they must finish either in first place in Group F or runners-up, which would almost certainly secure a play-off berth.

In the qualifiers for Euro 2008, Scotland faced not only the reigning world champions in Italy, but also France, losing finalists. Now fate might have dealt them a cruel hand once again as Scotland seek to qualify for a first major finals since 1998.

Scotland’s first meeting with England in a group that also contains Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta is at Wembley on 11 November.