Sarina Wiegman addresses ‘strange’ Scotland situation ahead of Nations League clash

England manager Sarina Wiegman has played down suggestions Scotland will make it easy for her team in their Nations League clash on Tuesday night due to the implication of Olympic qualification.

TheLionesses need to beat their rivals at Hampden Park in what will be their final game of 2023 and they will potentially need to win by some margin if they’re to have any hope of qualifying from Group A1 and to reach the knockout stage. That will depend on how the Netherlands fare against Belgium in the other group game, as the Dutch sit level on points with England in the group but ahead on goal difference.

Questions have been asked about how England were allowed to be drawn into a group with Scotland, not least because Team GB’s hopes of making next summer’s Olympics in France depend on England's progress. Team GB is comprised of England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland, so the conflict of interest has understandably been brought to attention.

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However, the Lionesses boss expects a tough game on Tuesday night and nothing less. She cited the long-standing rivalry between the two countries and insists Scotland will do everything they can to get a result against her team — regardless of what it would mean for potential Olympic qualification.

«If you know the history of Scotland-England, then there's no way that (Scotland) are going to give away this game,» Wiegman told the media in Glasgow on Monday. «They really want to beat England. And we want to beat them, of course.

»So yes, there's such a rivalry that there's absolutely not going to be the case, we saw when we