By Riordan Craig

Scotland host Japan in the first of their pre-World Cup friendlies on Saturday.

The hosts have struggled in friendly matches under Steve Clarke, winning just three of their 13, with wins coming against Luxembourg, Gibraltar, and Liechtenstein.

The Blue Samurai, meanwhile, have lost just two games since their 2024 Asian Cup quarter-final defeat to Iran, against the USA and Australia. This run includes a 3-2 comeback victory against Scotland’s World Cup opponents Brazil, with the Japanese being 2-0 down at half time.

Scotland last faced Japan in 2009 away from home, with the Scots suffering a late 2-0 defeat under George Burley.

In preparation for the game, the British-based players in the Blue Samurai squad, including Celtic’s Daizen Maeda, have been training at Dumbarton’s Marbill Coaches Stadium.

Scotland will be ditching their traditional navy blue home kits for the game, in favour of the recently announced salmon pink away strip at Hampden Park.

UWS News spoke to students around Ayr Campus for their thoughts.

John McInally said: “It is one of the best looking Scotland kits I’ve seen in a long time. It’s up there with the 150th anniversary kit.”

Leon McNiven said: “I think it’s cracking. It’s good to see the Adidas trifoil badge back as well. We’ve not seen an away kit like this for Scotland for years.”

The game kicks of at 5pm on Saturday the 28th of March, with Scotland then heading to the Hill Dickinson Stadium to face the Ivory Coast on Tuesday at 7:30pm.