23 Mar 2022
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Recent Form
Scotland are on a roll with six consecutive victories seeing them finish second behind Denmark in their qualifying group, but a full seven points ahead of next-best Israel. This winning streak has seen them register five clean sheets, including an impressive 2-0 victory over the Danes in their last outing at Hampden Park.
Steve Clarke would ideally have liked to take that kind of form into a competitive fixture, but of course the postponement of their play-off with Ukraine was not just understandable but inevitable. Poland were also free to engage in a friendly, having been scheduled to face Russia, though both managers will be taking this game seriously as they bid to keep up their momentum.
Poland have reacted reasonably well to the disappointment of finishing bottom of a group containing Sweden, Spain and Slovakia at Euro 2020, where they picked up just a single point.
They’ve since gone W5-D1-L1 across their World Cup qualifiers, even taking a point off England, though they did enjoy a relatively kind fixture list. They beat San Marino and Albania twice each, as well as Andorra to rack up an aggregate 21-3 scoreline across those five victories.
Although they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Hungary last time out, star striker Lewandowski was absent on that occasion and the game was effectively a dead rubber as Poland were already secure of second place behind England.
Lewandowski Form
The Bayern hitman equalled another Gerd Muller record by reaching 30 Bundesliga goals for the fifth time with a brace against Union Berlin prior to this international break. The 33-year-old is enjoying yet another remarkable campaign at club level and with 74 international goals to his name, is undeniably the main threat.
Having scored eight times and laid on four assists across his last eight appearances for Poland, netting at least one of his own in over half of these games, he’s certainly worth paying attention to in the goalscorers markets.
Scotland Selection Options
With this only being a friendly, Andy Robertson is highly unlikely to feature after the left-back missed Liverpool’s FA Cup tie with Nottingham Forest through illness.
It’s not as though Scotland are short of options there in any case, with Kieran Tierney firmly established in the Scotland setup and youngster Aaron Hickey making waves at Bologna.
Steve Clarke may well use this game as an opportunity to look at new options, with uncapped trio Craig Halkett, Ross Stewart and Aaron Hickey called up. Halkett could effectively jump the que with Steve Clarke’s centre-back options a little thin at present.
Scott McKenna, Liam Cooper and John Souttar are all unavailable, with Grant Hanley and Jack Hendry the fit options beyond Halkett in that position.
Under 2.5 Goals
Stewart has 22 goals for Sunderland this season and Scotland are in need of a prolific marksman to ease the burden on Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes, especially with the latter having only just returned from five weeks on the sidelines.
Indeed, Scotland have only scored more than a single goal in three of their past 11 games, and more than twice in just one of these, as nine of these matches featured fewer than three goals in total.
The Draw
With that in mind, this is unlikely to be a high-scoring affair and a stalemate would subsequently come as little surprise.
Excluding Poland’s clashes with minnows Albania, Andorra and San Marino, the visitors have lost six of 11 winless matches, but three of those defeats were inflicted by top sides Italy, Netherlands and England.
PREDICTIONS:
UNDER 2.5 GOALS
THE DRAW
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