The Scotland versus Israel Group F World Cup Qualifier at Hampden tomorrow has a Winner Takes It All feel to it for both nations. Denmark are the runaway Group leaders having won all six matches so far to get them to 18 points. It’s a fair to say that for the other contenders in the group – Scotland, Israel and Austria – it’s now all about securing that play-off spot. Scotland as we go into the penultimate batch of qualifiers are currently sitting in second spot on eleven points, one ahead of tomorrow visitors while Austria, after losing to the Scots in Vienna last month are trailing with just seven points.
So it seems to be down to whether Scotland or Israel are going to finish as runners-up to Denmark and in doing so will go through to the World Cup Play-offs. Which nation will get through? We’ll probably have a much better idea after tomorrow’s game are there are decent 1×2 betting tips on the match available.
If Scotland can win their home match against the Israelis they then have the short midweek trip to face the Faroe Islands. If that sometimes a tricky trip can also be successfully negotiated then Scotland manager Steve Clarke will believe that he is in a wonderful position going into next month’s group conclusion, with two final fixtures including of course a home match against the Danes.
A huge factor in tomorrow’s showdown is the return of the Hampden Army and the Israeli side will have to contend with around 50,000 Scottish fans roaring on the national side, something that the manager reckons has been a great miss during the covid restrictions.
“I am intrigued to see if that makes a difference,” Clark said at his media conference, as reported by BBC. “I know the players are looking forward to it, I am looking forward to it and hopefully it gives us that little bit extra impetus to go and get the points that we want.”
The sides have met six times since 2018, but Scotland have only won one, inspired by Celtic Star James Forrest’s wonderful hat-trick, but there was also that penalty shoot out last year which Scotland also won. It’s been a strange series of games which have been more often than not tight matches with very little between the sides. Usually it’s one player’s individual brilliance that ends up winning the day and the bad news for Clarke is that James Forrest isn’t fit and is not in his squad for tomorrow.
However his Celtic teammate Callum McGregor, probably the best player in the Scotland team this year, is almost certain to play after receiving from his hamstring strain which threatened to keep him sidelined. Celtic’ medical staff worked wonders and got the Celtic captain fit to start last Thursday in Celtic’s bruising Europa League encounter with Bundesliga high flyers Bayer Leverkusen. McGregor came through that challenge unscathed and also played on Sunday in the 2-1 Scottish Premiership at Pittodrie against Aberdeen. McGregor, who scored Scotland’s one and only goal at the European Championships in the summer could be the match winner for Clarke’s side tomorrow.
Clarke expects a “tight, technical game” between two well-matched teams. “I think we both have improved, probably in equal measures,” the Scotland manager said. “I have spoken quite a lot about how I feel we have improved over my tenure and I think the Israelis have done the same under their coach.”
Callum McGregor won’t be the only Celtic player likely to play tomorrow. In fact Israel are likely to include two Celtic players in their squad perhaps with Nir Bitton starting and Liel Abada coming off the bench. Bitton is likely to play as a sweeper and seldom scores for club or country – although he missed a glorious opportunity against Aberdeen at the weekend when he headed wide from a corner-kick – so the biggest threat to Scotland is likely to be Abada coming on, late in the game looking for a sniff at goal.
And as Celtic fans know, he has a real eye for goal. For once the Celtic fans will be hoping that Abada doesn’t score this weekend!
Match prediction: Scotland 1 Israel 0 with Callum McGregor scoring the golden goal for Steve Clarke’s side.
Scotland v Israel Match Stats
After winning four of their first five games against Israel, Scotland are winless in four against them, losing once and drawing 1-1 in Tel Aviv in the reverse World Cup qualifier in March.
Israel are yet to win at Hampden Park in four attempts, losing twice.
Scotland have only lost one of their past 12 World Cup qualifiers, 2-0 to Denmark in September, winning seven of them. They have kept seven clean sheets in these 12 games.
Israel suffered a 5-0 defeat in their last outing against Denmark, their heaviest in a World Cup qualifier since losing to Sweden by the same score in June 1993.
Scotland are looking to win three consecutive home World Cup qualifiers for the first time since winning all five in qualifying for the 1998 World Cup.
Memphis Depay and Aleksandar Mitrovic (seven goals each) are the only Europeans to have scored more World Cup 2022 qualifying goals than Israel striker Eran Zahavi (six). Zahavi has also scored in two of his three previous appearances against Scotland at Hampden.
Striker Lyndon Dykes has scored in his past two qualifiers for Scotland, the winners against Moldova and Austria. The only Scottish man to score in three in a row is He Who Must Not Be Named, who netted in five consecutively between September 1988 and April 1989.
