Scotland vs Czech Republic Euro 2020 Match Preview or Key Statistics 📊
Scotland have won each of their last three matches against the Czech Republic, their longest current winning run against any of the other 23 nations qualified for Euro 2020. It’s the first meeting between both sides at a major tournament (World Cup or European Championship).
This will be Scotland’s 11th appearance at major tournament (World Cup + Euros), including their first Euro participation since 1996. They have never progressed past the group stages in any of their previous 10.
The Czech Republic are taking part in their 10th UEFA European Championship (Czechoslovakia included), including their seventh in a row – an uninterrupted streak since 1996; only Germany (13) and France (8) are currently on longer such runs.
Czechoslovakia lifted the European Championship trophy in 1976, the only occasion a Euro final has been decided on penalties (2-2 a.e.t. vs West Germany, 5-3 pens). As the Czech Republic, they were also involved in the first Euro final to be decided by a golden goal (1-2 vs Germany, Euro 1996).
Scotland have picked up just one victory in each of their two previous appearances in the European Championships, with both wins coming in their final group stage match (3-0 vs CIS in 1992, 1-0 vs Switzerland in 1996).
Scotland have failed to score in four of their six previous European Championship matches, though they’ve also kept a clean sheet in three of their six games in the competition.
Since the Czech Republic reached the European Championship final in 1996 (1-2 vs Germany), they have been knocked out in the group stages in four of their six appearances at major tournaments (World Cup and Euros).
The Czech Republic have lost six of their last nine games at the European Championship (W2 D1), as many defeats as they suffered in their previous 22 such fixtures beforehand. They have also only drawn one of their last 19 games at the tournament, a 2-2 stalemate against Croatia in the 2016 group stages (W8 L10).
Scotland became the first team to qualify for the European Championships despite losing as many as five games in their qualifying group. They were also the only team in the qualifiers to register a negative goal difference (-3) among the 24 nations to have reached the finals (including play-off games).
Including play-offs, John McGinn was directly involved in over half of Scotland’s goals in Euro 2020 qualifying, scoring seven and assisting two of the Tartan Army’s 17 strikes.
54% of the Czech Republic’s goals in the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign came from set pieces (7 out of 13), the joint-highest ratio (including penalties) of any side to qualify for the tournament (level with Hungary, including play-offs).
COMMENTS