Alan Shearer’s thoughts on England vs Scotland

Coral football ambassador Alan Shearer sat down with Coral to give his England v Scotland thoughts ahead of the crunch clash at Wembley on Friday.

Shearer, who played against Scotland three times in his career, talks of the importance of the fixture as both nations aim to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Read on to find out Shearer’s thoughts in this exclusive interview…

Alan Shearer gives his England v Scotland thoughts in his latest Coral blog.

England v Scotland thoughts

I’d be a liar if I said I am confident that England will win this game. We only have to look back to the summer for a game where we were expected to win and we didn’t. Both of these teams have had much better teams than this in the past, but we are where we are and it doesn’t take away any of the rivalry which will be on full display at Wembley.

When you look at the reasons for not being beaten for both teams, it is a huge game. Gordon Strachan is under pressure to keep his job. They have not made a great start to their qualifying campaign so they can’t afford to keep dropping points.

As for England, there is no way they can lose to Scotland at Wembley after what happened in the Euros earlier in the year. England are top of their group, however they dropped points against Slovenia in their last game so they still have a lot of work if they are to finish top at the end of this campaign.

Shearer believes Southgate has two games to prove himself if he wants to be permanent England boss.

Gareth Southgate also has two more games to prove himself as the right man to lead England in the future. He still has to decide if he wants the job though. He has said he is not certain yet if he would accept the position on a permanent basis but a decision is likely to be made by the FA after the Scotland and Spain games. If he does want the job, he can’t afford to lose to Scotland.

There’s going to be a great atmosphere inside Wembley as there could be up to 14,000 Scots in the stadium for the game and they’ll create some noise. They’ll also be going there thinking they can win the game so the last thing England want to do is underestimate them.

It does not have to be pretty for both teams, you just have to get a win and then you can enjoy it.

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