Greece vs Scotland Prediction: Scots to channel their Hampden heroics

With automatic qualification for the Fifa World Cup still a possibility for Scotland, they will look to repeat their heroics from last month as they face Greece in Piraeus on Saturday (19:45 GMT, BBC Two). The Scots were 3-1 winners at Hampden Park when the sides met in October.

Read on for my Greece vs Scotland predictions, featuring the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Former Hibernian midfielder Nectarios Triantis has received his first call-up for Greece and the 22-year-old Minnesota United star is in contention to make his international debut on Saturday.

Boss Ivan Jovanovic has also called up uncapped 18-year-old forward Charalampos Kostoulas, who was signed by Brighton & Hove Albion for £30.9m in the summer transfer window from Olympiakos.

Benfica forward Vangelis Pavlidis is expected to lead the line for the hosts, however, while the likes of Kostas Tsimikas, Tasos Bakasetas, Christos Tzolis and Odysseas Vlachodimos are also likely to be involved, the latter of whom is hoping to collect his 50th cap.

Konstantinos Mavropanos and Fotis Ioannidis are not included because of injury.

Football Odds

Udinese midfielder Lennon Miller and Bristol City defender Ross McCrorie have both withdrawn from the Scotland squad due to injury. Napoli’s Billy Gilmour is also ruled out for Saturday, but there is hope that he can be fit to return for Tuesday’s crunch clash with Denmark.

With goalkeeper Angus Gunn also out injured, boss Steve Clarke may hand 42-year-old Craig Gordon his 82nd cap, even though he is currently the understudy at Hearts. Liam Kelly is also second choice for Rangers, while Falkirk’s Scott Bain has been recalled six years after earning his third cap.

Scott McTominay, Lewis Ferguson and John McGinn could make up the visitors' midfield, while Che Adams has started in all four qualifiers and will hope to retain his place up front ahead of Lyndon Dykes and Lawrence Shankland.

Today's Football Fixtures

Greece vs Scotland Odds

Greece have won just one of their four qualifiers, having lost three on the spin coming into Friday. They are 6/5 to get their revenge on Scotland.

The draw is marketed at 9/4, while the visitors are 12/5 (implied probability of 29.4%) to record another victory over the hosts and make it four wins on the bounce.

Both teams have seen each of their past two matches feature goals at both ends and BTTS - Yes is valued at 5/6 on Friday.

Match Result - Scotland @ 12/5

Last month's win over Greece was a strange one for Scotland. For much of the game, they were poor, and yet they were able to come from behind to win 3-1. It was the second consecutive win for Clarke's men and it spurred them on to follow it up with a victory against Belarus last time out.

They are level on 10 points with group leaders Denmark right now and so they will be thinking that automatic qualification could come down to their crunch clash with the Danes on Tuesday.

To put themselves in the best possible position, they will need to defeat Greece on Saturday, and given their hosts have lost three matches in a row, I think Scotland's 12/5 price to win is very generous.

With what's at stake, I am expecting the Scots to be fired up for this battle and I think their determination will help them to mark a fourth successive victory and put them on the cusp of the World Cup finals.

Both Teams To Score - Yes @ 5/6

I may fancy the visitors to win this clash but Greece can certainly play their part in Piraeus. They struck first in the reverse fixture last month, and this has been the case in five of their last seven matches.

Scotland are digging deep to find routes to victory in qualifying but there are still question marks over their defence. BTTS has struck in their last two victories, while there have been goals at both ends in three of the hosts' four qualifiers to date.

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