Scotland vs Belgium Predictions

Scotland’s chances of making Euro 2020 have drastically reduced following Friday’s 2-1 home defeat by Russia. the Scots may have already pocketed a playoff spot for March, but they wanted to move into the top two in this group to secure an automatic spot at next summer’s finals. However, their latest defeat has left them six points shy of the top-two with the group now at the half-way stage. Unless there’s a dramatic shock at Hampden Park this week, things aren’t getting better for the Scots any time soon.

Scotland have a mountain to climb in order to qualify, as they’d need four wins in five to even stand a chance. With their next two fixtures seeing them host Belgium and head to Russia, that seems unlikely. Scotland may rally late in this group to set themselves up for the playoff clash next year, while those playoff clashes have to be their focus moving forward in the next few months.

Belgium are cruising towards the Euros, while they’ve racked up five wins from five games, scoring 15 times and conceding just once. The visitors look great across the pitch, so they could kick on from their third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup and really threaten at the Euros. There’s little doubt that Belgium will make it, while they could have an 11 point lead over third with a victory this week.

Belgium are firing on all cylinders, while they recorded a routine 3-0 win over Scotland earlier this year. A year ago they were able to win 4-0 at Hampden in a post-World Cup friendly, while the visitors have scored twice in their last six meetings with Scotland. Their great record against the Scots should worry Steve Clarke, who saw his defence make some really poor mistakes to concede twice at home to Russia. Belgium should fancy their chances of scoring another few in this trip.

Belgium have scored twice or more in their last nine matches, a run split either side of the World Cup. However, given that the Red Devils returned from Russia as the tournament’s top scorers, we don’t think their attacking credentials are in doubt here. They head to a Scotland side who they’ve routinely dealt with in recent years, while the hosts have already shown themselves to be far too weak in defence. As a result, we’re going with Belgium to score at least twice in this visit to Glasgow, while we’re backing them to win to nil against the Scots for a sixth straight time. Belgium to win 3-0 is our prediction, all but ending Scotland’s top-two hopes.