England, with its young players, Foden and Bellingham in the lead, upset its oldest rival on the football planet, Scotland (3-1), Tuesday in a friendly at Hampden Park, where the party long awaited by supporters of the “Tartan Army” was cut short. The domination of the English, who came with a partly reworked team, quickly killed the suspense of this gala match celebrating the 150th anniversary of the very classic England-Scotland, played for the first time on November 30, 1872 in Glasgow.
Despite the fight, the European vice-champions played their part without a false note, with an attack that became effective again three days after having sinned, according to Gareth Southgate’s admission, against Ukraine (1-1) in qualifying. at Euro 2024. The coach kept his captain Harry Kane in the center but changed the wings. Exit James Maddison and Bukayo Saka, make way for Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden. Rashford often wreaked havoc in the Scottish defense, helpless against his lunges and dangerous crosses. He is one of the major architects of the first English goals.
The first was concluded by a fine deflection from Phil Foden (32nd, 1-0) on a powerful shot from Kyle Walker. The second comes from a completely missed clearance from Andy Robertson, perfectly exploited from six meters by Jude Bellingham (35th, 2-0). This same Bellingham never ceases to shine, definitely. Sparkling since his arrival at Real Madrid (five goals in four matches), the 20-year-old midfielder enriched his statistics with an assist for Harry Kane (81st, 3-1) after stopping the defense. “I used the last match (against Ukraine) as a source of motivation, and tonight it was more than a friendly match, it’s so important for the supporters,” said the prodigy. English on Channel 4.
On Tuesday, the partners of “Prince Harry” Kane extended their long invincibility against Scotland, whose last success against the rival dates back to 1999. With his 59th pawn in the selection, the top scorer in the history of the “Three Lions” completely dampened Scottish hopes, although they were briefly revived after Harry Maguire’s own goal (67th, 2-1), launched at half-time.
Scotland experienced another disillusionment on Tuesday, although its responsibility was not engaged. Coach Steve Clarke and his men would have qualified for Euro-2024 in the event of a draw between Norway and Georgia, but the team of Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, scorers, won 2-1 at Oslo. This does not take anything away from the Scots’ flawless performance so far, authors of five victories in five matches on the way to the Euro, with 2-0 successes against Spain at home and 2-1 in Norway. In Glasgow, the sky has turned blue again and Tuesday’s clouds will leave quickly.
