The Republic of Eire and Scotland go head-to-head in Dublin on Saturday night within the Nations League.
Eire will run out having misplaced each their opening Group B1 fixtures in opposition to Armenia and Ukraine, whereas the Scots arrive on the Aviva Stadium on the again of Wednesday night time’s victory over the Armenians.
Right here we check out a number of the speaking factors surrounding the sport.
Thirteenth time fortunate?
Eire take the sphere in opposition to Scotland having didn’t document a single win of their 12 outings within the Nations League.
A return of 5 attracts and 7 defeats underneath Martin O’Neill and present boss Stephen Kenny, who has gained simply two of the 17 aggressive fixtures of which he has taken cost, doesn’t inform the complete story, however they’ve scored solely two objectives within the course of and that may be a damning statistic.
Defensive dilemma
Scotland supervisor Steve Clarke has selections to make forward of the sport in Dublin (Andrew Milligan/PA)
(PA Wire)
After Scotland misplaced their World Cup play-off semi-final in opposition to Ukraine at Hampden Park final week, boss Steve Clarke made six adjustments for the go to of Armenia.
Solely captain Andy Robertson saved his place among the many 5 defenders, with Aaron Hickey, Scott McTominay, Grant Hanley and Liam Cooper dropping out and Anthony Ralston, John Souttar, Scott McKenna and Jack Hendry coming in for the 2-0 win.
Clarke will stick together with his most well-liked 5 on the again system, however eyes will probably be on which permutation of gamers he makes use of in Dublin.
Shuffling the pack
Kenny has indicated he’ll make use of the depth of his squad to each cowl accidents and search recent inspiration.
Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and skipper Seamus Coleman have already left the camp by way of damage and central defender John Egan is a serious doubt with an ankle drawback.
The likes of Dara O’Shea, the uncapped Festy Ebosele, James McClean, Jayson Molumby, Alan Browne and Michael Obafemi will hope their likelihood has come.
Attacking choices
Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams teamed up in assault for Scotland in opposition to Ukraine, however it merely didn’t work as deliberate.
Dykes withdrew from the squad with an damage after the defeat which meant that Adams was the primary attacker in opposition to Armenia, supported by Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Christie, whereas Ross Stewart got here on within the closing levels to make his worldwide debut and Jacob Brown additionally obtained a couple of minutes of recreation time.
However Clarke must provide you with a plan to search out the web in Dublin – it was defenders Ralston and McKenna who scored in opposition to Armenia.
Outdated foes
The edges final met throughout qualification for Euro 2016 and it was Scotland who held the higher hand, successful 1-0 at Celtic Park courtesy of Shaun Maloney’s candy strike and leaving Dublin with a 1-1 draw.
Nonetheless, it was Eire who had the final snigger after they beat world champions Germany to reap the benefits of the Scots’ 2-2 dwelling draw with Poland to clinch third spot within the group and make it to the finals through a play-off victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Kaynak: briturkish.com
