The last time we witnessed quality football was at the start of the month when Real Madrid won their 15th Champions League title after a pulsating encounter with Borussia Dortmund. As expected, many players from both clubs missed the pre-tournament friendlies to recuperate and with Germany hosting Scotland tonight in the European Championships, elite football takes center stage and there will be some Arsenal presence with Kai Havertz playing against Kieran Tierney.
Havertz will have some form of pressure on him, as he joins the elite list of great German forwards that would lead the line in a major tournament. He comes into the Euros in great form, scoring and assisting with reckless abandon, keeping Gabriel Jesus out of the first team, and going into the international scene, Julian Nagelsmann has favored Havertz ahead of Fullkrug, that had a decent campaign with Dortmund.
The pre-tournament friendlies saw Havertz start both games and score in the narrow win over Greece, while he featured for an hour in the stalemate with Ukraine. German fans will be hoping to go all the way courtesy of their home advantage but German football will need some rebuilding after Hansi Flick took them to the trenches and had to be relieved of his job afterwards. Their World Cup campaign was downright disastrous and the performances in the subsequent friendlies left a lot to be desired.
On the other side of the pitch, Havertz will be locking horns against a teammate he’s yet to play with, and might never do, in the form of Kieran Tierney. The left back commenced life well at North London following a move from Celtic but his injury record saw him eventually lose his place in the team.
The arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko was more or less the final nail in his coffin and the loan move to Real Sociedad last season was a welcome surprise, which favored both player and club, but Tierney got injured for a considerable chunk there as well, which pretty much quelled any hopes of him being retained in Spain.
While his agent will be on the lookout for a new destination for Tierney, his focus will be with his nation, as the odds are clearly stacked against them. Prior to the friendly win over minnows, Gibraltar, Scotland were winless in their last seven games, which included some thumping in the hands of France, Spain, England and Netherlands. They managed to get some draws against Norway and Georgia but one thing Scotland has been consistent in has been conceding goals, and we would expect Germany to do the same.
To team news, the spotlight will be on Toni Kroos, who came out from international retirement to play in midfield. Following the loss to England in the Round of 16 of Euro 2020, Kroos announced his retirement. Florian Wirtz will also have eager eyes on him on the back of his monumental campaign with Bayer Leverkusen this season. He scored 18 goals and created 20 assists, which meant he had 38 goal contributions, second only Erling Haaland and Cole Palmer.
Predicted Lineups:
Germany: Neuer; Kimmich, Tah, Ruediger, Mittlestadt; Andrich, Kroos, Gundogan; Musiala, Wirtz, Havertz.
Scotland: Gunn; Robertson, Tierney, Hendry, Porteous, Ralston; McGregor, Gilmour, McTominay, McGinn; Shankland
It will be a nice game to watch and I’d be cheering on Havertz and Tierney all night long.
Sayonara.
