Scotland’s young bucks to be given another chance to impress
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While the rest of the Home Nations use the current international break to plan for the upcoming European Championships, Scotland’s Gordon Strachan is forced to look a little further ahead.
Failure to qualify for the summer tournament in France means the former Celtic boss is looking to discover players that will impact the country’s World Cup qualification campaign.
With England the only opponents in Scotland’s group ranked in the top 25 of Fifa’s rankings, Strachan will feel confident of booking a place at the Russian tournament.
The buoyancy will have been helped by defeating upcoming Euros participant Czech Republic 1-0 last time out, with youth given a chance to impress.
Kenny McClean made his international debut in starting the game, while Paul Caddis and Tony Watt both collected their first caps with substitutes appearances.
With Denmark – a fellow Euro 2016 non-qualifier – arriving at Hampden Park, more of the Scottish party will be targeting a first appearance in blue.
Liam Cooper, Kieran Tierney, Oliver Burke, John McGinn and Jamie Murphy are all battling to make debuts against the Scandinavian outfit.
Such change is cause for excitement among the Scottish ranks, although it’s possibly the reason Ladbrokes make them slight outsiders for victory on their own turf.
The bookmaker prices Strachan’s boys at 19/10 to win at Hampden Park, with the Danes available at 6/4 and the draw a 21/10 chance.
After missing out to Sweden in the Euro 2016 qualification playoffs, Nicklas Bendtner and co are also limbering up for a World Cup qualification campaign.
Like Scotland, they also bettered a Euros participant in their first friendly, beating Iceland 2-1 on Thursday, but that was their first victory in seven outings.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
