WE won’t find out until December 2 who Steve Clarke and Scotland get for real in the Euro 2024 draw.
Indeed, the identity of the final three qualifiers will be unknown until March when the play-off process is completed.
But we’ve fast-forwarded a week or two at SunSport to simulate the draw right now – and the results won’t make great reading for the Tartan Army.
Bizarrely, you have to go back to 1998 for the only time that a major tournament featuring two home nations DIDN’T see at least two of them paired in the same group.
England found themselves paired with Wales at both the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2016, and grouped with Scotland at Euro 2020.
It remains to be seen whether the same will transpire at Germany next summer but that’s not who we’ve been paired with in our totally random simulation.
Instead we land a third crack at Spain – who we split the series with in qualifying, winning one and losing one.
You could argue that hands Clarke’s men an advantage should we meet again in Germany next summer – although you could quite equally make the opposite case.
But with a Fifa ranking of eight – and featuring the talents of stars like Rodri, Pedri, Gavi and Alvaro Morata – they’re no easy touch.
From the second pot of seeds, our random prediction lands us with Austria – a side who we beat on their own patch during the previous qualification campaign.
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That will stand us in good stead in a tournament were four of the third place finishers will also make it out of the group stages.
But the really bad news for Clarke’s men – should this simulation come true at the start of next month – is the fact that we landed Italy from Pot 4.
Luciano Spaletti’s men are the HOLDERS of the competition and quite frankly are the side no-one wants to see coming out of Pot 4.
Steve Clarke’s men will fancy their chances of getting out of ANY group come the summer.
But Swiss Football Data’s prediction algorithm at least doesn’t give them much credit.
They predict that the Scots would finish bottom of that group – with Spain finishing first, Italy second and Austria coming third.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
