Four months after the epic win over Denmark that took them to the World Cup, Scotland return to action with a tough friendly against Japan tomorrow.
The 4-2 win over the Danes capped a strong qualification campaign for Steve Clarke’s side, who face the Far East heavyweights at Hampden tomorrow before taking on the Ivory Coast at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium next week.
Clarke has a largely settled squad but has added the likes of Findlay Curtis, Dom Hyam, Andy Irving and forward Tommy Conway into the group to give them one final chance to impress.
And the former West Brom boss says there will be changes both tomorrow and on Merseyside.
“Obviously we’ve got quite a number of players who are maybe coming back from a longer term injury or who are carrying little niggles at this stage of the season,” he said.
“So some of the selections might raise an eyebrow a little bit. But my job is to make sure that the players come out of these fit, well and ready for the end of the season at the clubs and obviously to be ready for the summer.
“Every game with a national team should be an important game. They’re both important. In terms of preparation for the summer, very important.”
Clarke could certainly have picked two easier opponents than the 19th-ranked Japanese and the Ivory Coast, who are 37th in the world.
“We play against two teams, two top quality teams from different continents,” he added. “They’ll bring their own challenge. The Japanese side in particular have a very interesting way of playing.
“I found them a very good team to watch, if I’m being honest, in the preparation for the game, the way they play, the way they approach the matches. It’ll be a tough game for us.
“For us it’s to look at one or two things that are different, maybe look at one or two different personnel across the squad.
“Try and use as many players as possible over the two games, but also to try and get positive results so that we can continue to feel good about ourselves.
“It would be nice to think that we can continue where we were after the qualifying campaign.”
Japan were the first team to qualify for the World Cup after breezing through the Asian section.
Hajime Moriyasu’s side have lost just five games since reaching the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Celtic star Daizen Maeda is likely to start in his adopted home city but his club team-mate Reo Hatate was not selected.
Team news for Scotland v Japan
Scotland have a full squad to choose from, bar winger Ben Gannon-Doak.
Japan are without Ko Itakura, Takefusa Kubo and Takehiro Tomiyasu. Liverpool’s Wataru Endo is also injured and faces a race against time to be fit for the World Cup.
