⚔️ Auld Enemies, new rivalry? Scotland-England could usher in an era | OneFootball

The oldest fixture in international football will pay tribute to a storied history on Tuesday night.

Glasgow’s Hampden Park will be the venue as Scotland welcome England for a heritage match to honour the 150th anniversary of the first meeting between the old rivals.

That took place in November 1872 at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Partick and ended in a 0-0 draw.

Since then, things have largely remained close. England possess the overall upper hand with 48 wins, while Scotland have won 41 and a further 26 have ended level, including their most recent meeting: a scoreless stalemate at Euro 2020.

However, the Three Lions have undoubtedly had the better of recent meetings, with Scotland’s last victory coming in 1999 courtesy of a Don Hutchison winner in their Euro 2000 play-off before they were eliminated on aggregate after a 2-0 loss at Hampden thanks to a Paul Scholes brace.

England are also unbeaten on Scottish soil since a Rous Cup defeat in 1985, with current captain Harry Kane famously rescuing them at the death in 2017 after two stunning late Leigh Griffiths free-kicks seemed to have sunk the visitors.

But things appear to be changing.

This is no longer the Scotland who toiled in the doldrums for much of the past two decades, while England also haven’t quite built on their run to the Euro 2020 final, the same togetherness and bright spirit that carried them to within a whisker of glory having dulled somewhat; plenty of the current chatter around the team is on what a post-Gareth Southgate era might entail.

The Nations League may be no serious indicator of a team’s standing but can be looked at as a guide for the changing trajectories these countries are on.

On the night Scotland secured promotion to League A for the first time with a draw against Ukraine in Krakow, they passed their Auld Enemy on the way as Southgate’s side suffered relegation after a disappointing showing saw them register zero wins from their six games.

Scotland have gone from strength to strength since.

They are on the longest unbeaten run in Europe in qualifiers, stretching that out to 11 with a 3-0 win in Cyprus last Friday, and have won all five of their Euros group games this year, conceding just once. Even that came from a dubious Erling Haaland penalty.

Over the last five competitive games, they have won all five and scored twice in each, something they hadn’t managed since the late 1940s.

Angus Gunn has solved the goalkeeping conundrum and settled seamlessly into international football, Manchester United’s Scott McTominay has become Haaland-esque in a blue shirt, John McGinn continues to quietly creep up on the all-time scoring mark and Steve Clarke’s options at wing-back would make any manager envious.

England, while results have ticked along nicely (including an impressive 7-0 success over North Macedonia during the summer) drew with Ukraine prior to this one and there are more questions than answers surrounding their current situation.

Centre-back remains a talking point, with Harry Maguire continuing to benefit from the faith of the manager despite his club level struggles, as does Jordan Henderson in midfield, even after taking a considerable club level step down by swapping Liverpool for Al-Ettifaq and the Saudi Professional League.

That said, they have arguably world football’s most in-form player at their disposal right now in Jude Bellingham, who will hold the keys to his country’s midfield and prospects for the next decade and more, ably assisted by Arsenal’s outstanding duo Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka.

While Scotland may not have that one superstar in their mix (captain Andy Robertson perhaps being the biggest household name), they are a team who are far greater than the sum of their parts in Clarke’s tried and tested 3-5-2.

As they sit on the verge of booking their ticket for Germany next summer, nothing would rubberstamp their rise more and put the icing on the qualification cake than victory against their neighbours … who would love nothing more than to burst that balloon.