Scotland v Greece: Line-ups, stats and preview

Preview for Scotland v Greece

Scotland will be gunning for revenge when they take on Greece at Hampden tomorrow night.

Steve Clarke’s side hosted the Greeks almost eight months ago in a Nations League play-off, the visitors overcoming a 1-0 first-leg deficit to win 3-0 in Glasgow and confirm Scotland’s relegation to Group B.

The Tartan Army will go into the game in confident mood having taken four points from their first two Group C qualifiers, a goalless draw in Denmark and a 2-0 win in Belarus.

And with two home games to come – they also host Belarus on Sunday – they know six points will go a long way to securing a place in the United States, Canada and Mexico next summer, especially with Denmark also due to visit Hampden next month.

All focus for now is on Greece, though, with assistant coach Steven Naismith confident he knows what is required to reverse the outcome of their last meeting.

“We’ve got a clear idea of what needs to be better, what we’re really good at as a team,” said Naismith, who says the squad is determined to make the finals after missing out on Qatar 2022.

“The getting to major tournaments, that is massive,” he added.

“That we’ve managed to do two Euros, to get to the play-offs for the previous World Cup and narrowly miss out – it all builds a determination, an anger for not making the last World Cup.

“Knowing that you can get there, it all feeds in, it all feeds in on top of the players and the individuals progressing at their clubs. Definitely the confidence is as high as I’ve seen.

“In the first camp, we’ve done a lot of good work. This camp we need to continue that to make sure we’re in that position in November so that we’re really confident it’s in our own hands and we believe we can do it.”

Greece’s hopes of qualification were hit by a 3-0 defeat at home to Denmark last month but they know a win here would reignite their hopes of at least a play-off spot.

Team News for Scotland v Greece

Clarke has to decide whether to go with one up top or field a two-pronged strikeforce of Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams. We think he will favour the former and play Scott McTominay in behind Adams.

Greece’s dangerman is Vangelis Pavlidis, who has scored five goals in eight games for Jose Mourinho’s Benfica this season. Olympiacos defender Panagiotis Retsos is out due to a groin injury.

Predicted line-ups for Scotland v Greece

Scotland: Gunn; Hickey, Souttar, Hanley, Robertson; McGinn, Gilmour; Gannon-Doak, McTominay, Christie; Adams

Greece: Tzolakis; Vagiannidis, Mavropanos, Koulierakis, Tsimikas; Zafeiris, Kourbelis; Karetsas, Bakasetas, Tzolis; Pavlidis

How to watch Scotland v Greece: TV and online streams

Scotland versus Greece kicks-off at 7.45pm UK time tomorrow night. You can watch it on BBC Scotland and stream it via the BBC iPlayer.

Stats for Scotland v Greece

• Greece have won their last five away matches
• Greece have not qualified for the World Cup since 2014
• Scotland have not qualified for the World Cup since 1998
• This will be Steve Clarke’s 71st match in charge of Scotland, equalling the record set by Craig Brown

Prediction for Scotland v Greece

Such was the dominance enjoyed by Greece in Glasgow in March, it is hard to overlook it when assessing this game.

It will be a raucous Hampden that will hope to roar their team on to a hugely valuable three points but we fancy Greece to get a draw that will be of little use to either side, and put Denmark in control of the group.

Prediction: Scotland 1-1 Greece