Scotland vs Spain – World champs can continue Scottish misery
Published:After a disapointing 1-0 defeat against the Czech Republic on Friday, Scotland will be dreading the visit of the World Champions to Hampden Park.
Though they sat top of Group I up until Friday night, Scotland have looked far from convincing in this campaign, and in truth, could have been beaten far more heavily than the 1-0 scoreline suggested as the Czechs missed a hatful of chances.
Match Odds
Spain won comfortably on Friday night against Lithuania and bring to Hampden a perfect record of six points from two games. With odds of 4/11 on them beating the Scots, they’re the clear favourites for the tie.
Scotland are given a generous 8/1 to beat Spain. Much as their home record isn’t terrible, having not lost at Hampden in four matches, the free scoring world champions will be very confident of winning.
Total Goals
Given Craig Levein’s team fielded a 4-6-0 formation for most of the game against the Czechs, and you have to wonder whether they’ll consider putting out a 9-1-0 when the free scoring Spanish come to town.
With this in mind, the 8/11 for a Spain clean sheet looks a good bet.
The only silver lining for the Scottish attack is Jamie Mackie.
The striker has been in sparkling form for QPR and if he’s allowed to play up front, odds of 4/1 on him scoring any time are worth meditating on.
Although they suffered a defeat to Argentina in a friendly early last month, Spain are still favourites to retain their Euro crown next year and it’s hard to see what a Scotland team short on goals and confidence can do to stop them.
Spain are still missing Fernando Torres as well as midfield maestros Xavi and Xabi Alonso, but they seemed to cope fine without them on Friday, with Torres’ replacement Fernando Llorente bagging a brace against Lithuania.
He’s 11/10 to score, while his strike partner David Villa is 8/11.
Spain are 7/4 to score more then 2.5 goals, See the full Euro 2012 qualifying football betting odds market here
