The ex-Man Utd boss believes next month’s fixture at Wembley is must win for Gordon Strachan’s side, and has picked his favourite memory from clashes between the nations
Sir Alex Ferguson says that if Scotland are to prolong their hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, they have to go and beat England at Wembley next month – but he believes it is possible.
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The former Manchester United manager was in Glasgow to launch the city’s logo for Euro 2020 and was bullish about the chances of Gordon Strachan’s men, who have made a slow start to Group F, winning four points from three matches.
“I think they have to win it – but that’s not a problem! They can win it,” he said.
“Scotland always do well against England. There’s that great incentive as the underdog. We do best as underdogs and the support will be fantastic. I don’t know how many will be there, but whatever they allocate Scotland, it’ll be treble that. They’ll find tickets somewhere.
“Remember back to 1976 when they tore down the goalposts. I think the English FA president said they were going to ban Scottish fans forever, two years later there was 18,000!”
Ferguson recalled the playoff for Euro 2000, when Scotland came close to levelling a 2-0 deficit that they had incurred at Hampden, where Paul Scholes scored twice for the Three Lions. Don Hutchison secured a win for the Scots on the night under the Twin Towers, but though the momentum was with them, it was not enough to get them over the line.
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“If you go back to the European Championship playoff a few years ago, they went down there and were very, very unlucky. In the last minute Christian Daily had a header saved by David Seaman,” he said.
Fergie himself has fond memories of England v Scotland encounter and recalled how he very nearly played in his favourite – a victory at Wembley in 1967 over the then World Cup holders.
“The 3-2 game. I was originally in the squad. Denis [Law] had a knee injury, but he was fit. My dad had never been to Wembley and he had booked the tickets because I was in the squad at the time. To win 3-2 was fantastic,” the ex-Scotland boss recalled.