Euro 2020: Scotland’s best chance to qualify for something in over 20 years

Euro 2020 will be an international football competition like no other as for the first time it will be held all over Europe in 12 cities including Glasgow, London, Dublin, St Petersburg, Munich, Rome, Bilbao, Baku, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Budapest. This will give a chance for millions across Europe to witness games as many massive teams will be playing in various countries. One country that will be hoping to get into the tournament is Scotland who are desperate to end their 22 year absence at a major tournament. Scotland finished 3rd in their qualifying group, finishing 9 points behind fellow Euro 2020 hosts Russia in which was a pretty disappointing European Championship qualifying campaign. This saw Scotland sack Alex Mcleish throughout the campaign and replace him with Stevie Clarke who hasn’t had the time yet to fully prepare his own team. With a managerial change occurring too late and poor performances on the pitch, Scotland were yet again doomed to another 2 years of sitting in the house watching yet another international tournament without Scotland.

Scotland however have a massive lifeline in the form of the Nations League playoff. The Nations League was a new tournament set up by UEFA which acted as a sort of promotion/ relegation league system in which 4 divisions were created with various groups within them. These groups consisted of 3 or 4 teams and Scotland were handed a place in the third division within a group consisting of Albania and Israel. Scotland would go on to win 3 out of their 4 games in the group seeing them finish top place in their group allowing them to progress to the semi final of the nations league 3rd division playoff. This led to Scotland being drawn at home to Israel in the semi final of the playoff, who Scotland had already played and beaten at home in the group stage. If Scotland can overcome Israel then they will play either Norway or Serbia away from home in the playoff final, with the winner being given a place at Euro 2020. It may seem confusing but the Nations League is Scotland’s only chance of qualifying for a major tournament which is why Scots should be happy with the introduction of the Nations League. If Scotland get through then they are guaranteed to play the Czech Republic and Croatia at Hampden alongside a mouth watering tie against famous rivals England at Wembley.