Scotland kick off their 2025 with a Nations League play-off against Greece, beginning with the first leg away from home on Thursday night.
The Scots are aiming to stay in Group A, the top tier of the competition, while the Greeks are going for promotion from Group B.
Ahead of the action, we’ve picked out a selection of statistical and historical nuggets for you to pore over…
Honours even
This will be Scotland’s third meeting with Greece, following Euros qualifiers in 1994 and 1995. Each country won 1-0 at home then, with the Scots going on to qualify for Euro 96.
Ally McCoist scored the winner for Craig Brown’s team at Hampden Park, less than a minute after coming off the bench.
Scotland won’t find it easy to take the lead in the head-to-head battle, though: they’re facing a Greek side who have won six of their last seven games – including a dramatic 2-1 Nations League victory over England at Wembley in October – and risen to 39th in the FIFA World Ranking, their highest position since August 2017.
Robertson rising
Captain Andy Robertson is poised to become just the third player to earn more than 80 caps for Scotland.
The Liverpool left-back currently sits joint third on the all-time list alongside Darren Fletcher. Assuming he’s involved as expected in Piraeus, he’ll have only Jim Leighton (91 caps) and Kenny Dalglish (102) ahead of him.
It’s been just over 11 years since Robertson, who turned 31 last week, made his international debut as a substitute against Poland during his Dundee United days.
Meanwhile, should John McGinn bag a brace – as he has done on three previous occasions for his nation, hitting one hat-trick – he’ll become only the fifth Scotland player to pass the 20-goal mark, after Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish (both 30), Hughie Gallacher (24) and Lawrie Reilly (22).
The Scottish diaspora
The 23 players in Steve Clarke’s latest Scotland squad are spread across 20 different clubs from eight different leagues in six different countries. How’s that for variety?!
Players plying their trade in Scotland, England, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Austria and Italy all feature, with three clubs supplying two apiece: Hearts, Rangers and Napoli. Intriguingly, Hearts provide both the oldest and youngest squad members: 42-year-old goalkeeper Craig Gordon and uncapped 18-year-old forward James Wilson.
