Pre-World Cup friendlies

[Clyde1998]

Just looking at the dates for internationals, it appears we'll have four friendly slots before the World Cup: two in March; two in June before the competition starts.

Certainly the March matches could give an opportunity for a couple of the fringe players to get an opportunity, whereas the June slot will be similar to the friendlies we've had before the recent Euros.

The sides we play in these friendly matches will come down to who we get in the draw (most likely).

[NE TA in the weeg]

I think it'll be a wee while yet before anything's organised - I'll forgive the staff at the SFA if they've not been entirely on top of things today...

One of the things to note is that all the play-off teams will be busy in March, despite that probably being the level of opposition we'd want to test ourselvse against as preparation.

[Bristolhibby]

Obviously wait until the draw and the pathway is clear before organising friendlies. Whatever it takes to prepare the boys for North America. 
 

J

[drew]

I wouldn't be surprised if the 2 friendly games in June were played over in North America or a neutral venue somewhere else. Get the team use to the heat as well as the time difference. Some of that might depend on where our group games end up being played.

[Clyde1998]

3 hours ago, NE TA in the weeg said:

I think it'll be a wee while yet before anything's organised - I'll forgive the staff at the SFA if they've not been entirely on top of things today...

One of the things to note is that all the play-off teams will be busy in March, despite that probably being the level of opposition we'd want to test ourselvse against as preparation.

I'd say we'd want to play against any non-European team that's similar to what we'll face at the World Cup. If we're drawn against Japan for example, perhaps a friendly against South Korea would make sense; drawn against Ghana, play a friendly against the Ivory Coast.

We don't play non-European sides much any more. I think the last lot was during that run in McLeish's second spell where we played (and lost) to Costa Rica; Peru; and Mexico. Would simply give us a good idea of how strong these sides are compared to European teams we play.

5 minutes ago, drew said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the 2 friendly games in June were played over in North America or a neutral venue somewhere else. Get the team use to the heat as well as the time difference. Some of that might depend on where our group games end up being played.

I imagine there will be at least one friendly in June that's against a weaker side, similar to us playing Luxembourg and Gibraltar before the previous Euros, simply for fitness reasons; I'd imagine we'll have at least one friendly in North America for acclimatisation reasons too.

Could maybe have a friendly against someone like Bermuda or the Dominican Republic.

[DesiScotsman]

For March two back to back home friendlies ideally both against someone outside of Europe depending on who we draw in the World Cup groups to get us used to playing against that type of opponent from the same continent that has also qualified so we are also testing ourselves well against a very good level but not massively too difficult. If we get an Asian team like South Korea in our World Cup group then someone like Saudi Arabia. If it is an African team in our World Cup group like Morocco then someone like Egypt. If we get a South American team like Uruguay in our World Cup group then someone like Paraguay.

Think the June friendlies should definitely be in North America. Let the players acclimatise themselves & get used to playing in the hot weather over there. Someone not too difficult but would provide a good test like Panama and then one against a team that is considerably much weaker like Guyana. 

[mccaughey85]

6 hours ago, Clyde1998 said:

Just looking at the dates for internationals, it appears we'll have four friendly slots before the World Cup: two in March; two in June before the competition starts.

Certainly the March matches could give an opportunity for a couple of the fringe players to get an opportunity, whereas the June slot will be similar to the friendlies we've had before the recent Euros.

The sides we play in these friendly matches will come down to who we get in the draw (most likely).

I think we should make sure 2 of these games are against weak sides. 

Don't want a repeat of the period after we qualified for euro 2024 were we played alot of games v tough opponents and struggled for a year or so.

Better to get our confidence up with some wins before we head to the world cup.

[ProudScot]

4 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I think we should make sure 2 of these games are against weak sides. 

Don't want a repeat of the period after we qualified for euro 2024 were we played alot of games v tough opponents and struggled for a year or so.

Better to get our confidence up with some wins before we head to the world cup.

This definitely 

[sjd1972]

Curaçao or Cape Verde away.

[DesiScotsman]

17 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I think we should make sure 2 of these games are against weak sides. 

Don't want a repeat of the period after we qualified for euro 2024 were we played alot of games v tough opponents and struggled for a year or so.

Better to get our confidence up with some wins before we head to the world cup.

We qualified for Euro 2024 after the Spain away game when they won in Oslo a few days later and our friendlies before the actual tournament opener against Germany were:

France (A) (this though was arranged before Euro 2024 qualification had even been confirmed so not sure if it should be on the list but just added it in anyways)

Netherlands (A)

Northern Ireland (H)

Gilbraltar (A)

Finland (H)

 

Only France & Netherlands are the two that stick out as tough opponents. 1st half in both games we did really well as massive underdogs. The rest were against nations that we are expected to beat. We played poor in those games losing to Northern Ireland and squandering a 2-0 second half lead against Finland to draw 2-2. We only won against Gilbraltar and for large parts of that we didn't look very convincing as we should have looked. 

Edited November 19, 2025 by DesiScotsman

[ceudmilefailte]

40 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

I think we should make sure 2 of these games are against weak sides. 

Don't want a repeat of the period after we qualified for euro 2024 were we played alot of games v tough opponents and struggled for a year or so.

Better to get our confidence up with some wins before we head to the world cup.

Do you actually follow Scotland? We played the Netherlands and that was it. 

[Grim Jim]

44 minutes ago, sjd1972 said:

Curaçao or Cape Verde away.

Exotic!

A few years ago our ranking slumped and we were roughly equivalent to Cabo Verde; a small volcanic Atlantic nation loosely similar to Africa what Iceland is to Europe.

I fancied a friendly against them back then to settle our ranking, but we've seen Iceland humble a few teams since then, including us.

Brilliant that we've both qualified for 2026, so good luck to them. Unless we're in the same group of course.

[mccaughey85]

50 minutes ago, DesiScotsman said:

We qualified for Euro 2024 after the Spain away game when they won in Oslo a few days later and our friendlies before the actual tournament opener against Germany were:

France (A) (this though was arranged before Euro 2024 qualification had even been confirmed so not sure if it should be on the list but just added it in anyways)

Netherlands (A)

Northern Ireland (H)

Gilbraltar (A)

Finland (H)

 

Only France & Netherlands are the two that stick out as tough opponents. 1st half in both games we did really well as massive underdogs. The rest were against nations that we are expected to beat. We played poor in those games losing to Northern Ireland and squandering a 2-0 second half lead against Finland to draw 2-2. We only won against Gilbraltar and for large parts of that we didn't look very convincing as we should have looked. 

 

22 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Do you actually follow Scotland? We played the Netherlands and that was it. 

We played, England, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain around that period. Not the smartest move when we knew that we could end up at the euros playing top sides. 

We also had won our nations league group so we knew we were going to be up against top sides in league A.

We should have just have arranged easy games rather than the playing England, France and Netherlands.

[ceudmilefailte]

10 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

 

We played, England, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain around that period. Not the smartest move when we knew that we could end up at the euros playing top sides. 

We also had won our nations league group so we knew we were going to be up against top sides in league A.

We should have just have arranged easy games rather than the playing England, France and Netherlands.

Surely we are talking about arranging friendlies not playing games that we had to play. 

[mccaughey85]

3 hours ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Surely we are talking about arranging friendlies not playing games that we had to play. 

Yes but we already knew we were playing Spain and Norway around that period. We also already knew we were promoted to league A in the nations league. You add in the prospect of potentially going to euro 2024 then looking back it wasnt the smartest idea arranging games against France, England and the Netherlands knowing we were going to be playing a raft of top sides over the next year and half. 

We ended up going on a terrible run of bad results. 

At least this time we are back down to league B in the nations league but I still think it's better we get some moral boosting wins before we head to the world cup. 

[ceudmilefailte]

7 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yes but we already knew we were playing Spain and Norway around that period. We also already knew we were promoted to league A in the nations league. You add in the prospect of potentially going to euro 2024 then looking back it wasnt the smartest idea arranging games against France, England and the Netherlands knowing we were going to be playing a raft of top sides over the next year and half. 

We ended up going on a terrible run of bad results. 

At least this time we are back down to league B in the nations league but I still think it's better we get some moral boosting wins before we head to the world cup. 

Pretty sure the Netherlands game was the only one arranged after qualification. 
I think Nothern Ireland,Finland and Gibraltar where supposed to be moral boosting games. 
One way or another I hope the preparation a whole lot better than last time. 
in my opinion it was the worst part of Clakes tenure 

[mccaughey85]

8 minutes ago, ceudmilefailte said:

Pretty sure the Netherlands game was the only one arranged after qualification. 
I think Nothern Ireland,Finland and Gibraltar where supposed to be moral boosting games. 
One way or another I hope the preparation a whole lot better than last time. 
in my opinion it was the worst part of Clakes tenure 

Doesn't matter. We should have assumed that we might qualify for the euros and we knew we were promoted to league A of the nations league. We also knew we were playing Spain and Norway during that period as well. 

[Clyde1998]

Just looking at potential friendlies, appears most of the Pot 1 sides are playing themselves in March and are doing so in the United States:

1. Spain - Argentina (Qatar); TBC
2. Argentina - Spain (Qatar); TBC
3. France - Brazil (USA); Venezuela (USA)
4. England - TBC; TBC
5. Brazil - France (USA); Croatia (USA)
6. Portugal - Mexico (USA); United States (USA)
7. Netherlands - TBC; TBC
8. Germany - TBC; Ivory Coast (Germany)
9. Belgium - United States (USA); TBC
10. Mexico - Portugal (USA); TBC
11. Canada - TBC; TBC
12. United States - Belgium (USA); Portugal (USA)

Additionally, Croatia and Colombia face each other in the USA.

I'd be very surprised if we play friendlies in North America in March, so this would rule out playing most of the top sides in March - which is probably for the best.

Obviously all the play-off sides are unavailable in March too.

[NE TA in the weeg]

1 minute ago, Clyde1998 said:

I'd be very surprised if we play friendlies in North America in March, so this would rule out playing most of the top sides in March - which is probably for the best.

I like the idea of testing ourselves against one of the Asian or African Pot 2 sides in March.  We already have a handle on a lot of the European sides thanks to the Nations League and the qualifiers, teams from other continents are more of an unknown quanitity.

[kumnio]

Someone somewhere joked that we should play Belarus at home and applaud them. I agree.

• Morocco (A)
• Romania (H)
• Poland (A)
• Belarus (H)

Based on two games in March, and another two in June. I can't see us pushing the boat out and going to the Americas, so a wee trip to Morocco would do.

[wanderer]

For March I think we will play two home games, and one of them will be against a African nation (not expecting us to play anyone from outside of Europe or North Africa) depending on our World Cup draw.

Other game could be against someone like Estonia or Latvia, as the type of teams we usually play are all in play off matches.

June, there has been a persistent rumor of a game against the Welsh as part of their 150th celebration next year, and that is really the only window for it, so would hint at an away game v Wales and then a farewell match at Hampden.

[NE TA in the weeg]

Wales away doesn't sound like great preparation for the World Cup, even if the Welsh qualify.  And if they don't, I can't imagine it'd feel like much of a celebration for them to invite World Cup bound Scotland into their own backyard ahead of the tournament.

[wanderer]

Just now, NE TA in the weeg said:

Wales away doesn't sound like great preparation for the World Cup, even if the Welsh qualify.  And if they don't, I can't imagine it'd feel like much of a celebration for them to invite World Cup bound Scotland into their own backyard ahead of the tournament.

Their very first match was against us (be it in Glasgow), and their CEO has been quite vocal on securing this match since 2021 (initially he wanted the game in Wrexham, but doubtful that will happen with their stadium upgrades planned for next year)

[NE TA in the weeg]

I know it doesn't work like this, but I would hope the SFA are primarily guided by what the football management and coaching team want in terms of the most appropriate preparation.

[Orraloon]

I want games against weaker opposition to TRY to instil a wee bit of confidence into the players again. Hopefully play lots of forward passes, instead of this passy passy shyte across the back four. Maybe even score a few goals. Our players have looked very short of confidence in recent games. Apart from our amazing goals against Denmark we have been outplayed in all areas of the pitch. They need a confidence boost to make them start to think that they are actually good enough to compete well at the World Cup. A wee dose of the Jim Baxter type swagger would be good to see.