England beat Croatia 1-0 in their opener. They had 49% possession in that game, with 8 shots, 2 of which found the target, they were given 1 yellow card and took 1 corner. Scotland lost 2-0 to The Czech Republic in their opening group game, in a game where they had 58% possession, took 6 corners, had 19 shots with 4 on target, and were given no cards.
The referee for this game is Antonio Mateu (Spain), this season he has taken charge of 28 games, giving out 124 yellow cards and 3 red cards, for an average of 4.43 yellow cards per game and 0.11 red cards per game. In his career he has been the man in the middle of 287 games, awarding 1333 yellow cards and 60 red cards, an average of 4.64 yellow cards per game and 0.21 red cards per game.
Scotland were very poor in their opening game and come here with it all to do. England know that a win here will guarantee them a spot in the knock out rounds and get them one step closer to a first major international honour since 1966. At times Scotland were all over the place defensively against Czech republic, and that’s not good news as they take on the most talented attacking team that England have had in some time. Scotland will be massively pumped up for this game and that combined with the atmosphere at Wembley is likely to create pressure in the game. England will try and stick to their normal style of passing it around the back and midfield, as they methodically try to break down the opponent, but I see Scotland pressing England and the game becoming scrappy at times. England have a clear edge in class, it’s just whether they get drawn into the scrappy type of game that Scotland will love. Scotland created some chances in their first game, but they hardly looked an attacking threat, and their best chance of a goal is likely to be from a set piece. I can see England controlling the game for large portions with some parts becoming scrappy which will give Scotland the opportunity to get themselves into the game. In summary I think England win this quite comfortably 2-0 or 3-0, and almost for England the more boring the game the better. As if this becomes a basketball type end to end game where the atmosphere gets to the players then that will favour Scotland, but if England can keep their cool and play in their usual style, which many England fans feel is too defensive and boring to watch, they may not please all the fans, but they will pick up a relatively comfortable win.
