Scotland cancel friendly just days before World Cup as worrying update emerges
behind-closed-doors friendly against Norway that was scheduled to take place on Monday, according to Norwegian FA chiefs.
Steve Clarke’s side recorded a comfortable 4-0 win over Bolivia on Saturday as goals from Lawrence Shankland, Scott McTominay and Che Adams (2) sealed a timely victory ahead of their World Cup opener against Haiti on June 14.
After the full-time whistle in New Jersey, a relieved Clarke admitted he was delighted after getting through the match with no injuries. “For once I got everything I asked for,” he said. “No injuries, a performance and a good result.”
It has been a nervy week for the Tartan Army after Billy Gilmour was ruled out of the World Cup after picking up a knee injury in a friendly against Curacao on May 30.
In fact, it appears they are taking extra precautions coming into the final stretch. On Sunday, it was confirmed that Scotland have cancelled a closed-doors game against Norway because of fitness concerns.
Morten Morisbak Skjonsberg, who is the Norwegian FA media manager, announced the news in a statement.
“It is a poorly-kept secret that we were supposed to play a training match against Scotland on Monday,” he said. “Today we learned that Scotland unfortunately had to withdraw from the agreement due to injuries.”
Norway manager Stale Solbakken also confirmed the cancellation, which has forced them to make last-minute plans.
“The idea of playing Scotland was that we could get some minutes in the legs of the guys who don’t play in the Morocco game (on Sunday),” he said. “The cancellation means I will make more changes in our game against Morocco.”
Steve Clarke opens up on having “fantastic problems” ahead of World Cup opener
Speaking after Scotland’s victory over Bolivia, Clarke was extremely positive coming into their Group C games against Haiti, Morocco and Brazil.
“We’ve got fantastic problems,” he said. “Really good first half, then I turned round to my bench and the changes we were making were good. You lose a little bit of the rhythm of the game when you are making so many changes, both sides.
“But the boys who went in, their priority was not to concede because we wanted a clean sheet. It’s been a little while since we had a clean sheet so it is nice to get that.
“Goals will be important, obviously we get told that we don’t score enough goals but that is back-to-back fours. It’s about the creation of the chances, the creation of the chances was good tonight and if you create good chances then we have got players on the pitch who will score goals.”
