IT’S been one incredible season for Rangers Football Club, and no less than FIVE champions have the opportunity to extend their personally wonderful campaigns with their national teams at this summer’s UEFA Euro 2020 tournament.
With the competition having been delayed for a year, anticipation for the big kick-off on Friday is high, not least given it will be the first time many of the players will have played in front of a significant crowd for the first time in 15 months.
The unique, pan-European nature of this tournament means there are wonderful opportunities to play at some of the continent’s most iconic stadia over the next month, and with four games being played here in Glasgow, it is especially fantastic to have Scotland at their first major tournament in 23 years, with Rangers players as part of their pool too.
This week, as we build up to the big kick-off on Friday, we’ll preview each of the five Light Blues players who will be in action. Today, we’ll take a look at Jon McLaughlin and Scotland…
SCOTLAND’S 23-year wait for a major international tournament is at an end after the Dark Blues’ penalty heroics to make it through the Nations League play-offs against Serbia last November.
There have been many near misses in those 23 years – with those coming most often as they attempted to qualify for the continent’s biggest party. From undeserved play-off heartache at Wembley in 1999, a famous 1-0 win and an infamous 6-0 second-leg reverse against the Netherlands four years later, a last-gasp loss to Italy another four years after that, and then a late group collapse in 2015, finally, the pain was ended last year in dramatic fashion.
This will only be the third time Scotland have reached a Euros – their previous outings having been in 1992 and 1996, and of the six games they have played in, they have only ever netted goals in two of them. In a 3-0 win over the CIS in Sweden in 92, a certain Gary McAllister found the net, while four years later in England, there is no surprise really Ally McCoist was on target with a screamer against Switzerland in a 1-0 win.
Two Rangers players have made the squad this time – Jon McLaughlin and Nathan Patterson, while Academy graduates John Fleck and Billy Gilmour have also made the final pool of 26. We’ll shine a light on Nathan on Thursday, but for now, let’s look at Jon as he gets set for the Scots’ opener at Hampden on Monday.
McLaughlin has two caps to his name thus far having played in a 1-0 defeat to Mexico in the Azteca in 2018 before featuring in a 6-0 win over San Marino at Hampden in 2019.
Since his move to Rangers last summer, he has become a regular fixture in the Scotland squads, and would doubtless have been joined as well as by Patterson, but also by Ryan Jack.
He goes into the tournament off the back of a superb season at Rangers – while playing often behind former Scotland international Allan McGregor, he kept a remarkable 12 clean sheets in 14 appearances.
He will be pushing for a starting place against the Czech Republic on Monday afternoon, when the Scots will not only play their first tournament game in a generation, but also walk out at Hampden in front of a passionate home crowd.
For the first time in 15 months, a significant crowd will be in attendance (12,500) and with international travel all but banned, they are pretty much guaranteed to be united in their backing of the Scots.
That game is big enough, but four days later, they play arguably the highlight match of the group stage when international football’s oldest rivalry is reopened when Scotland travel to Wembley.
The group stage then rounds off for Scotland back at Hampden when Borna Barisic’s Croatia head to Glasgow on Tuesday, June 22.
Infamously, Scotland have never made it beyond the first stage of a major tournament, but the way the Euros are set up, just one win and limited damage to goal difference could see them through to the Round of 16 as one of the four best-placed third-place teams from the six groups.
Should they make it through, their Last 16 tie could also be at Hampden, but it could also be in one of Copenhagen, Seville, Wembley or Budapest.
SCOTLAND FIXTURES (timings BST)
Monday 14 June – Scotland v Czech Republic - 2pm - Hampden
Friday 18 June – England v Scotland – 8pm - Wembley
Tuesday 22 June – Scotland v Croatia - 8pm - Hampden
SCOTLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Craig Gordon (Hearts), David Marshall (Derby), Jon McLaughlin (Rangers).
Defenders: Liam Cooper (Leeds), Declan Gallagher (Motherwell), Grant Hanley (Norwich), Jack Hendry (Celtic), Scott McKenna (Nottingham Forest), Stephen O'Donnell (Motherwell), Nathan Patterson (Rangers), Andy Robertson (Liverpool), Greg Taylor (Celtic), Kieran Tierney (Arsenal)
Midfielders: Stuart Armstrong (Southampton), Ryan Christie (Celtic), John Fleck (Sheffield United), James Forrest (Celtic), Ryan Fraser (Newcastle United), Billy Gilmour (Chelsea), John McGinn (Aston Villa), Callum McGregor (Celtic), Scott McTominay (Manchester United), David Turnbull (Celtic)
Forwards: Ché Adams (Southampton), Lyndon Dykes (QPR), Kevin Nisbet (Hibernian)
Coach: Steve Clarke