This Friday old foes England and Scotland will play each other at Wembley Stadium in their World Cup qualifier match in front of a sell out crowd. The match will mark the 113th time that the two nations has met on a football field. England have 47 wins, Scotland 41 and there have been 24 draws.
As current standings go in Group F for qualification to Russia 2018 England are in pole position with 7 points though any points dropped here could let in Lithuania or Slovenia, indeed if Scotland were to win this match they would go level on points with England.
The Scottish are aiming to qualify for their first major championships since the 1998 World Cup which was held in France. But first they must meet the old enemy. Whilst both nations have arguably had better sides throughout their glorious past as soon as the players arrive on the pitch and the game gets going the atmosphere within the stadium is sure to be electric.
This fixture has history written all over it, for example the very first international football game was England v Scotland which was played in 1870 and ended 1-1. Then of course there are the infamous matches which took place throughout the 20th century. The Wembley Wizards was a term coined to the Scottish side who in 1928 thrashed England 5-1 with Alex Jackson grabbing a hat trick.
In 1961 five years before England would be crowned world champions they demolished Scotland 9-3 this time it was Jimmy Greaves scoring three goals in front of almost 100,000 fans.
In 1967 England lost their first game in 19 matches to you guessed it Scotland in what many regard as Scotland’s best if not most famous victory over England given that they had beaten the then world champions. The game ended 3-2 to the Scottish where we witnessed a frantic ending that saw 4 goals scored in ten minutes.
Ten years later Scotland beat England 2-1 at Wembley and memories were forever embedded into the Wembley turf quite literally as Scottish fans invaded the ground after the game and hung to the goal posts.
More recent memories for England anyway will always point to Euro 96 and the infamous group game which saw a rebirth of sorts from the maverick but gifted Paul Gascoigne who scored a wonder goal complete with a wonder celebration in a 2-0 win over the Scots.
The nations have played just twice this century with both wins for England in what were entertaining games loaded with goals. Can Scotland pull off a shock and win on Friday? History is against them since they have only beaten England once since 1986.
Whatever the result we are sure to see a game full of passion and commitment and one surely not to be missed.
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