This Euro 2024 Group A match between Scotland and Switzerland will take place on Wednesday 19th June 2024 at 8pm (BST).
The game will take place at the RheinEnergieStadion (Cologne Stadium) in Cologne, the home of FC Koln which has a capacity of 43,000. This stadium notably hosted the 2020 UEFA Europa League final.
Match Preview & Prediction
Scotland made it back-to-back Euro tournaments under Steve Clarke, they finished their qualifying group in second place, runners-up to European giants Spain.
The Tartan Army haven’t won a game in this competition since 1996, they head into this campaign with the confidence and hope of causing a few upsets on the way following their qualification results.
Group A Betting - Switzerland
The Scots share Group A with the hosts Germany, Switzerland and Hungary. Realistically, it’s unlikely that Scotland will defy the betting odds and win this group, if they are to qualify into the round of 16, you’d probably expect it to come via the third best place route, although a result here and they’ll definitely have their eye on that second automatic spot.
Switzerland’s qualifying campaign didn’t quite go as planned, they managed to qualify automatically but only with a runners-up spot, too many draws for the Swiss denied them finishing above Romania as many would have expected, they collected five draws from their ten qualifying matches.
Murat Yakin’s side did qualify though and that’s now their fifth qualification for this European tournament in their last six attempts.
They won’t be travelling to Germany just to make up the numbers either, they shocked the footballing world at Euro 2020 by knocking out the favourites France on penalties in the round of 16, they even took Spain all the way in the quarter-finals before crashing out on penalties, they’ll be looking to do something similar here.
Scotland vs Switzerland History
These two sides have met sixteen times over the years, the Scots have managed a victory in eight of them, whilst the Swiss have taken a victory in five. The first game between the two nations took place in 1931 as they played out a 3-2 thriller in an international friendly.
As mentioned earlier in this piece, Scotland’s last win in this competition came in 1996 and that win actually came against their opponents here, Switzerland. An Ally McCoist goal gave the Tartan Army a 1-0 victory at Villa Park, they’ll be hoping for more of the same in Germany.
Focusing on more recent times, the last times these two sides came up against each other was in 2006, Switzerland were victorious in that game by three goals to one, albeit in another international friendly.
Scotland v Switzerland Betting Odds
The sports betting odds have Switzerland as the favourites to get the victory here.
To Qualify From Group - Scotland
Although Scotland will be looking to cause an upset and have hopes of repeating their 1996 result against the Swiss.
Scotland Squad Euro 2024
Goalkeepers:
Zander Clark (Hearts), Craig Gordon (Hearts), Angus Gunn (Norwich City) and Liam Kelly (Motherwell).
Defenders:
Liam Cooper (Leeds United), Grant Hanley (Norwich City), Jack Hendry (Al-Ettifaq), Scott McKenna (Copenhagen), Ryan Porteous (Watford), Anthony Ralston (Celtic), Andy Robertson (Liverpool), John Souttar (Rangers), Greg Taylor (Celtic), Ross McCrorie (Bristol City) and Kieran Tierney (Real Sociedad).
Midfielders:
Stuart Armstrong (Southampton), Callum McGregor (Celtic), Ryan Jack (Rangers), Ryan Christie (Bournemouth), Billy Gilmour (Brighton), John McGinn (Aston Villa), Kenny McLean (Norwich City) and Scott McTominay (Manchester United).
Forwards:
Che Adams (Southampton), Ben Doak (Liverpool), James Forrest (Celtic) and Lawrence Shankland (Hearts).
Switzerland Squad Euro 2024
Goalkeepers:
Yann Sommer (Inter Milan), Yvon Mvogo (Lorient), Marvin Keller (Winterthur), Gregol Kobel (Borussia Dortmund) and Pascal Loretz (Luzern).
Defenders:
Kevin Mbabu (FC Augsburg), Silvan Widmer (Mainz 05), Nico Elvedi (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Manuel Akanji (Manchester City), Ricardo Rodriguez (Torino), Cédric Zesiger (VfL Wolfsburg), Fabian Schär (Newcastle United), Albian Hajdari (Lugano) and Leonidas Stergiou (VfB Stuttgart).
Midfielders:
Denis Zakaria (Monaco), Remo Freuler (Bologna), Granit Xhaka (Bayer Leverkusen), Uran Bislimi (Lugano), Michel Aebischer (Bologna), Xherdan Shaqiri (Chicago Fire), Vincent Sierro (Toulouse), Ardon Jashari (Luzern), Fabian Rieder (Rennes) and Filip Ugrinic (Young Boys).
Forwards:
Zeki Amdouni (Burnley), Noah Okafor (Milan), Renato Steffen (Lugano), Ruben Vargas (FC Augsburg), Kwadwo Duah (Ludogorets Razgrad), Breel Embolo (Monaco), Andi Zeqiri (Genk), Steven Zuber (AEK) and Dan Ndoye (Bologna).
Scotland and Switzerland Euro 2024 Predictions
Here are my Euro 2024 predictions for these two nations.
Scotland – Steve Clarke’s side will of course be hoping to qualify from this group but it’s likely if they are to do so, it’ll come via the third-place route resulting in a number of scenarios in terms of their opponents in the round of 16.
The Tartan Army would definitely meet a group winner though and I feel like that would be a step too far for Scotland.
Switzerland – If Switzerland finish second in this group like many people expect, they’ll play the runners-up in Group B, which will be one of Spain, Croatia, Italy or Albania.
I think they’ll just come up short in the round of 16 fixture. In terms of the Euro 2024 odds, the Swiss are currently 1/2 to make it out of the group.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
