Who will win Scotland vs Croatia? Our writers make their predictions for Nations League clash

John Carver reckons Scotland can still salvage second place in this Nations League group.

To be fair to Steve Clarke's no 2, he also admitted bottom of the pile is just as likely. What is certain is that it's been too long since Scotland won a game. Performances are at least improving on the face of it, having hit rock bottom in the build up to and during Euro 2025 which left everyone as flat as pancake.

A raging Ronaldo was nullified at Hampden last month, and now it's time to try and keep Luka Modric and Croatia quiet. We made a decent fist of things in Zagreb despite letting a lead slip and were a tight offside call in stoppage time away from rescuing a point. It's maybe too late to seriously affect our placing for the World Cup qualifiers, but it's important to build momentum for those games and not find ourselves still stuck in this winless rut with another tournament at stake.

The Record Sport team share how they think things will go at Hampden on Friday night.

It's been a bruising campaign but an important one in terms of Scotland’s growth under Steve Clarke. They’ve swapped blows in pot 1 throughout it all and now seems like the perfect time to shut it down by ending a long winless run. It could come next week in Warsaw but Scotland were the better team in Zagreb and could be capable of toppling the Croats on home soil.

Scotland 2 Croatia 1

Steve Clarke’s side have been gradually putting building blocks down in this Nations League campaign and it feels like they’re now ready to go and get a victory. He’s got key players back and Scotland showed enough in Zagreb to suggest they can beat the Croats at Hampden. If they keep Luka Modric quiet and get young Ben Doak on the ball, they can pick up their first points