While there is a slight sprinkling of stardust in their squad, this Netherlands outfit is still a far cry from the wonderful Oranje teams of the recent past and they aren’t anywhere near consistent enough to back in the markets on Friday.

The Netherlands have lost five of their last 11 games since their World Cup exit to Argentina in December 2022 and while they qualified for the Euros quite comfortably, their performances rarely convinced.

Scotland meanwhile, remain a resurgent emerging force under Steve Clarke, as evidenced by their excellent Euro 2024 qualification campaign that included a second-place finish in Group A and a historic victory over Spain.

Indeed, the Scots usually find a way to score past most opponents and they failed to notch in only one of their last 11 matches. Scotland traded blows with some high-profile opponents last year and BTTS landed in their encounters with England, France and Norway at the back end of 2023.

A similar outcome could be worth backing when they take on the Netherlands. The Dutch have shipped nine goals in six home fixtures since the World Cup, though it is interesting to note that they haven’t failed to score in a match on home soil since drawing a blank in a friendly against Mexico in October 2020.

On that evidence, backing both teams to score in Amsterdam looks like the play here, while braver bettors might be pushed to take Scotland with a +2.0 handicap against their uninspiring hosts.

Enigmatic Atletico Madrid attacker Memphis Depay is usually the centre of attention in forward areas for the Netherlands, so expect him to take a lead role again when the Oranje face Scotland on Friday.

Depay is the leading scorer in the Netherlands squad by a distance with 44 goals and the 30-year-old has often been on both penalty kick and direct free kick duty for his country, while his own shoot-on-sight policy have also helped to drive his shots per game numbers up.

Indeed, Depay averaged a whopping 4.50 shots per game during the Netherlands’ Euro 2024 qualification run, with 2.0 per game finding the target. Depay also landed 1.80 attempts on target per run-out in the Nations League and the versatile frontman catches the eye at 2.20 to have two or more shots on target against Scotland.

His team-mate Virgil van Dijk meanwhile, who is a bet builder favourite of ours, could be worth shortlisting to have a least one attempt in Amsterdam. The giant defender can ruffle feathers from set pieces and the 32-year-old has racked up 11 attempts in his last 13 appearances combined at club level for Liverpool.

For the visitors, recently crowned Scottish Player of the Year for 2023, Scott McTominay, can continue his talismanic international performances with another strong showing in Amsterdam. The reliable goal threat had a massive 20 shots across eight Euro 2024 qualifier appearances, eight of which hit the target and the 27-year-old should be good for at least one accurate strike at the Johan Cruijff Arena.

Netherlands managed to win more corners than their opponents in three of their last four international tests and they could be worth backing to top the metric again against a Scotland side that aren’t big on possession.

The visitors averaged just 47.3% possession during their recent Euro 2024 qualification campaign and while they won the corner battle as expected against the likes of Gibraltar, Georgia and Cyprus, they won fewer corners than possession-hungry Spain in both encounters with La Roja.

The Netherlands posted average possession figures north of 60% in their qualification tests for the Euros and a similar ball-control figure on Friday should allow them to win over 4.5 corners at Scotland’s expense and that target comes with a decent price here.

Bettors should also consider backing over 7.5 total corners to land at the same odds. 90% of the Netherlands’ last ten fixtures saw eight or more corners awarded, so expect that trend to continue on Friday.

While international friendly fixtures are usually more even-tempered than competitive clashes for obvious reasons, a couple of individuals stand out as strong candidates in the cards market.

For the Netherlands, Atalanta anchorman Marten de Roon is worth tracking. The 32-year-old has been collecting card after card at club level for Le Dea and de Roon’s love of a tough tackle has seen him pick up nine bookings in 24 Serie A appearances.

With the pair likely to be operating in the same spaces at the Johan Cruijff Arena, de Roon could be involved in a running battle with the bristly John McGinn.

The Villa man relishes football’s more physical elements and McGinn committed averages of 1.60 and 1.50 fouls per game in Scotland’s most recent Euro 2024 qualification and Nations League matches respectively.

McGinn has seven yellow cards to his name for Aston Villa this season, which is a tally that aligns with his bustling, aggressive style of play and the 29-year-old should be right in the thick of things again in Amsterdam, making him a prime cards market contender again.