England

Raheem Sterling – the player who scored the only goal in the match against Croatia, which led to England's first victory not only in this championship but also in the entire history of England's national team in opening matches. And yes, you understood correctly – the England national team had never won the first match in the group stage in the entire history of the European Championships, which indeed seems incredible. With this victory, the England national team extended their winning streak in international competitions to 7.

Speaking about the match against Croatia, although the result does not seem impressive, overall, the England team looked quite good. Kalvin Phillips played an excellent game, and Raheem Sterling, who had not had the best season with Manchester City, redeemed himself by scoring a goal. Overall, there was more positivity in the team's play than obvious mistakes.

A victory against Scotland would practically guarantee the first place in the group for the England team and a relatively weaker opponent in the next stage. The England team has conceded only 1 goal in the last 7 matches, so demonstrating at least similar defense to what we saw against Croatia, it will be very difficult for the Scots to score, and the England team is rightly considered the clear favorites to win.

Scotland

If we emphasized the positivity in the England team's play, the situation is somewhat more complicated when talking about the Scotland team. This team has achieved only 2 victories in the last 8 matches: a 4-0 win against the Faroe Islands and a 1-0 win against Luxembourg. Although there was no clear favorite in the opening match against the Czech team and the teams' chances were rated equally, the Scots did not take their chances and conceded 2 beautiful goals by Patrik Schick. One of the goals into the Scotland team's net was from half-field, and there is no doubt that this goal will be one of the most beautiful moments of the entire tournament.

For the Scots, this is the first European Football Championship since 1996, in which they managed to achieve a victory against the England team in the group stage. The Scotland team will try to demonstrate a similar result in this tournament, but considering both the recent forms of the teams and the individual skills of the players, it is clear that the Scots will need a miracle to achieve at least a draw.

Predicted team line-ups:

England (4-2-3-1): Jordan Pickford, Kieran Trippier, John Stones, Tyrone Mings, Luke Shaw, Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips, Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane;

Scotland (3-5-2): David Marshall, Jack Hendry, Grant Hanley, Kieran Tierney, James Forrest, John McGinn, Scott McTominay, Stuart Armstrong, Andrew Robertson, Lyndon Dykes, Che Adams.

Prediction

We will undoubtedly see a fierce battle between two teams with a great rivalry, so there will be a fight for every inch of the field. We may see more fouls and yellow cards than in previous matches. Realistically, the England team is much stronger than the Scots today, so if there are no major surprises, we may see a comfortable England victory of 2-0 or 3-0.