International Football Preview - Scotland vs Australia

Scotland takes on Australia at Hibernians home ground of Easter Road in this early season friendly.  This is Scotland’s fist international match for almost 3 months and they will be hoping to get a look at some new faces in the squad to get an idea of who will participate in the world cup qualifiers that start next month. 

Australia have already started their qualifying for the 2014 World Cup and are currently at round 4 of their qualification which sees two groups of 5 teams with the top two in each group going into the World Cup tournament.  Australia’s first game saw them take on Omen in an away tie, with the match finishing goalless.  They had the chance to register their first win of round 4 in a home match against Japan but managed only a 1-1 draw, they were down to 10 men for the final 35minutes of the match however so will not be too disappointed with the draw.

Scotland’s last match was at the end of last season away to the USA.  They were easily brushed aside by a much better USA team who dominated throughout and recorded a 5-1 win.  Scotland have two very important home matches to start their World Cup Qualifying campaign against Serbia and Macedonia.  They will need to take at least 4 points from those games to be in with a chance of qualifying and will be hoping to use the home crowd in this game to get the winning feeling amongst the players and support.

Scotland has brought some players into the squad to have a look at with an eye on the world cup qualifiers going forward.  Huddersfield’s Jordan Rhodes is being courted by many Premiership and Championship teams and could end up an important player in the Scotland setup.  As could Danny Fox, the Southampton left back who has one Scotland cap, if he plays weekly in the premiership then he will easily overtake lower league players like Lee Wallace.

Australia has picked an experienced squad for the game including 9 UK based players.  The team should be fairly familiar to the Scotland squad therefore and will give a stern test.

The betting sees Scotland as small favourites for the win at 2.5, Australia are 3.19 with the draw at 3.4.  Scotland will be under more pressure to get a result, being at home and with their World Cup Qualifiers starting soon.  Australia have already settled on a team having played two qualifiers and will be looking to their experienced players to grind out a result.  This is a difficult match to predict and a lot will depend on any players dropping out the squad and the starting line ups on the day.  Stay tuned to howtobet for more up the minute tips as the game approaches.