Scotland to face World Cup finalists France in October friendly

Scotland will play a friendly against World Cup finalists France later this year, the Scottish FA has announced.

Steve Clarke’s team will travel to Lille to take on the star-studded team on October 17.

The match will take place just five days after Scotland play Spain away from home in their Euro 2024 qualifier.

Kylian Mbappe and his France teammates suffered heartache when they lost out to Argentina on penalties at the end of a thrilling World Cup final last year.

Since then they have bounced back with a 4-0 demolition of Netherlands and a 1-0 win in Ireland in the European Championship qualifiers.

The announcement adds another tough fixture to a busy 2023 for Clarke and his Scotland players. The team have gone six games unbeaten and had a tremendous start to the Euro qualifiers with a 3-0 win over Cyprus and memorable 2-0 victory against top seeds Spain at Hampden.

Euro 2024 qualification continues in June with a trip away to face Norway before a home fixture against Georgia, and there’s a trip to face Cyprus in September.

The match against France isn’t the only glamour friendly on the calendar. Scotland will face England on September 12 at Hampden to mark the 150th anniversary of their first ever match.

And after the Spain-France double-header, the team will be back in action in November with the final Euro qualifiers, away to Georgia and home to Norway.