Scotland face Finland on Friday (June 7) at Hampden as they play their final friendly before going up against hosts Germany in the opening game of Euro 2024 (June 14).
Steve Clarke’s men will be looking to put on a good performance in front of the Tartan Army before setting off to the land of frankfurters and sauerkraut.
Monday’s match against Gibraltar in Portugal saw a non-convincing performance from the Scots, where second half goals from Ryan Christie and Che Adams saw out a 2-0 win against the part-timers.
Adams scored a brilliant volley for the second and spoke on the Scotland National Team’s X (formerly Twitter) page after the match, saying: “The boys started well, we just didn’t get the goal as soon as we’d liked, but the boys dug deep and we managed to get over the line”.
Talking about his winning goal, he continued: "It was probably one of the best ones that I’ve hit, I didn’t know if I had enough time to take a touch, but I think it was the right decision in the end.”
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From that performance, it is clear that the team will have to be more clinical and step up their game for a sterner test on Friday night.
Players in the 28-man provisional squad will need to stake their claim to impress the management team and get their seats booked on that plane.
As well as the injured Lyndon Dykes, there will be another two disappointed players leaving the camp, as Steve Clarke announces his trimmed down 26-man final squad, with the UEFA deadline for completed squads being June 7.
Finland will also look to put on a good performance back on UK soil, to avenge their 4-1 playoff semi-final defeat to Wales back in March. The match which ended their hopes of qualifying for Germany.
We look at areas of the pitch where Friday’s game could be won and an interesting point about the Finland players in these battles is that three out of four have previously played their football in Scotland.
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Goalkeepers
We start with the number one’s and for Scotland the probable starter for this game and the Euro’s will be Angus Gunn. The Norwich City goalkeeper is the son of former Scotland, Aberdeen and Norwich favourite Bryan Gunn.
A good shot stopper who prefers to stay close to his line, Gunn has played in the majority of his teams English Championship matches last season, keeping 12 clean sheets as his team finished sixth in the division. This was enough to get them into the Championship play-offs, where they lost 4-0 to Leeds United over two legs in the semi-final.
Finland goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky enjoyed better fortunes as his Bayer Leverkusen team went on a massive 51 game unbeaten streak to win the Bundesliga title. They also got to the Europa League final where the run ended, as they were beaten 3-0 by Atalanta. Hradecky enjoyed 15 clean sheets throughout the campaign.
Both ‘keepers have a similar style as Hradecky is particularly good at shot stopping and also rarely leaves his line, he can add a knack of being able to push the ball away from opposing attackers to areas of safety to his list of talents.
He could prove to be a difficult opponent for the Scotland frontline on Friday night.
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SPFL foes
Heart of Midlothian and Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland will be up against Aberdeen and Finland central defender Richard Jensen, in a battle that has already been played out three times last season in the Scottish Premiership.
It is safe to say the prolific Hearts man came out on top, scoring twice over the three games, with the Jam Tarts winning twice at Tynecastle by a 2-0 margin. Shankland even scored at Pittodrie as Aberdeen won 2-1.
Although being top scorer in the Premiership last season with 24, Shankland has found the going tougher on the international front with only two goals in ten games for the A squad.
Big Jensen will be out to make sure that run continues on Friday.
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Old teammates reunite
Grant Hanley returned to the Scotland side for the first half of the Gibraltar match after his 2023/24 season was badly disrupted by injury, only playing nine games for Norwich in the Championship.
Now 32, he isn’t the fastest central defender in the squad, but always gives 110%, is good in the tackle and is one of the leaders on the pitch for Scotland.
These could be the reasons that Steve Clarke trusts Hanley to do a job in Germany, he and the coaching staff will be hoping that he can get back to fitness in time to make the final squad.
He will be up against ex Norwich City team-mate and ex Celtic striker Teemu Pukki on Friday night.
Hanley and Pukki were team-mates at Norwich for five seasons, from 2018/19 until Pukki left for the MLS and current side Minnesota United at the end of the 2022/23 season.
This makes for an interesting battle, as they will know each other’s strengths and weaknesses very well from that period.
Pukki, although now 34, still holds a decent turn of pace, the ability to go past players and the creativity to play others in.
He’ll also be rated as a goalscoring danger for the Scots as 20 goals for Celtic in his first season in 2013/14 and 87 goals in his time at Norwich testifies.
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Wide men could be key
Another consistent performer for Steve Clarke, Ryan Christie, has 48 caps and 6 goals for his country and seems to be enjoying his newfound role on the right side of midfield.
Although not blessed with blistering pace, Christie did the easy things well and produced a fine finish for the first goal against Gibraltar, taking advantage of a loose ball in the box to lift it over the advancing ‘keeper into the net.
Christie will be high in confidence after that goal and the opponent that will be tasked with stopping him doing it again is Exeter City and former Dundee United left back Ilmari Niskanen.
Three years younger than Christie, 26-year-old Niskanen currently plays in league one and previously had two seasons in the Premiership with Dundee United, leaving for Exeter when United were relegated at the end of the 2022/23 season.
A hard-working player, Niskanen likes to get up the pitch and has the ability to provide assists from the left, getting 3 for Exeter last season.
It remains to be seen if he will be more contained within the defence on Friday, but if not, maybe that will be an area of the park that Scotland can look to utilise.
Whoever comes out on top in these battles, should determine the match outcome. This coupled with the fact that the Scotland players will be eager to impress, makes for a mouthwatering prospect on Friday night.
Stats have been gathered from Soccerway, ESPN, Livescore and the Scottish FA website.
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