Scotland vs Portugal Preview

Portugal will travel to Hampden Park this Tuesday to face Scotland in their fourth game of the 2024/25 Nations League group stage.

Scotland come into this game in dour form having suffered their third straight Nations League defeat in a 2-1 loss to Croatia last time out. After they lost their opening two games against Poland (3-2) and Portugal (2-1) by conceding after the 85th minute, Stev Clark’s side are now staring at likely relegation back to League B for the next cycle.

Their current woes show how things have changed for Scotland in the last 18 months.  The Scots beat European champions-to-be Spain 2-0 in Glasgow about 18 months ago, but since then, they have only beaten Georgia at home (D2, L3) so they face a tall order here.

Winning none of the last three H2Hs on home soil (D2, L1) is hardly encouraging either, as Steve Clarke’s men try to pick themselves up again and get something out of their first-ever campaign in League A.

Meanwhile, unlike their hosts, Portugal come into this game in brilliant form. They have won their opening three Nations League games of this campaign, including a 3-1 win over Poland in their last game. The visitors are seasoned campaigners at this level, having won the inaugural Nations League title in 2018/19.

They are now closing in on the knockout stages and will all but secure passage to the next round if they avoid defeat here. But given that they conceded in all three fixtures, there’s still work to do to overcome the hosts.

Still, Roberto Martinez’s side have a good record against lower-ranked sides. The visitors have only ever lost one Nations League away game against lower teams (W5, D3) and scored at least twice in all of those wins so a repeat of their last visit to Glasgow when they won 3-1 in October 2018, could well be on the cards.