Scotland’s hopes of remaining in League A of the Nations League were extinguished on Sunday night after Steve Clarke’s side were comprehensively defeated 3-0 at Hampden Park by Greece.
The two-legged Nations League promotion/relegation play-off had been in the balance after Scott McTominay’s goal from the penalty spot in Piraeus last week had given the Tartan Army a one-goal first-leg advantage.
But a desperately disappointing performance on home soil saw the Scots soundly beaten, as Giannis Konstantelias, Konstantinos Karetsas and Christos Tzolis all struck to hand the Greeks a 3-1 aggregate victory.
How England can benefit from Scotland’s defeat
It goes without saying that most England fans will revel in a Scottish loss of any kind, but Sunday night’s defeat could end up handing the Three Lions a more tangible benefit than just mere bragging rights.
While Scotland were scrapping to stay in League A of the Nations League, England had already won promotion from Group B, finishing on top of a group last year that contained Greece, the Republic of Ireland and Finland.
That meant England’s 2024/25 Nations League campaign was completed last November, paving the way for the Three Lions to get started on their World Cup 2026 qualifying campaign, as the Thomas Tuchel era kicked off with a 2-0 win over Albania at Wembley on Friday.
Both England and Scotland will put the Nations League to one side until the start of the 2026/27 season, after next summer’s World Cup is played, but Scotland’s defeat to Greece and subsequent relegation will have handed England a seedings boost when the tournament picks up again in 18 months.
Scotland’s relegation will see them fall to a Nations League ranking of number 17 for the 2026/27 competition, down from November’s interim ranking of ninth place. England will now overtake Scotland and be ranked 11th for the next edition of the tournament, a higher rise than if the Scots had held onto their place in League A.
These rankings take into account results from the league stage, the League A knockout stage, plus the promotion/relegation play-offs.
World Cup qualification is next on the agenda for both nations however, with the Scots finally seeing their qualifying group confirmed after these latest fixtures, meaning they will be up against Belarus, Denmark and Greece in Group C.
England got their campaign off to a winning start by downing Albania on Friday, with Latvia their next opponents on Monday evening. Serbia and Andorra round off the group.
