Scotland vs North Macedonia prediction and team news

How it settled

Scotland 2–1 North Macedonia, full time on Friday 13 November.

The preview read Scotland as heavy favourites against a side with no points and no goals in the group; they won, but by one goal, closer than the odds implied.

Our call before the match

Written on 11 Nov 2026, before the match. The prices, team news and any "tonight" or "next week" below are as they stood then.

Scotland are heavy favourites to beat North Macedonia at Hampden on Friday: bet365 had them at 1.17, with the draw at 7.00 and North Macedonia at 15.00, on the OddsSafari comparison we read on Wednesday 11 November. That is about an 85% chance for Scotland before the margin comes out. North Macedonia have no points and no goals in Group B1, and Scotland won the reverse fixture 2–0 in Skopje five weeks ago.

BAI8 has a researched page for this match: Scotland vs North Macedonia on BAI8, where you can open our call. The Free plan covers 5 assessments a month, no card needed. There are more Nations League predictions too.

Kick-off, venue and what is at stake

Friday 13 November 2026, 19:45 UK time (20:45 CET), Hampden Park, Glasgow. It is matchday 5 of League B Group 1. Scotland then go to St Gallen to play Switzerland on Monday 16 November; North Macedonia finish at home to Slovenia the same night.

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
1	Switzerland	4	4	0	0	11	1	12
2	Slovenia	4	2	1	1	5	3	7
3	Scotland	4	1	1	2	3	5	4
4	North Macedonia	4	0	0	4	0	10	0

The Scottish FA says two wins will "likely be required" for a shot at the promotion play-off. Read the table the other way and the stakes are clearer: Scotland are four points above the bottom, and a home defeat here would put them at real risk of dropping to League C. For North Macedonia, anything other than a defeat would be the first point of the campaign.

Scotland: team news

Sébastien Pocognoli named his squad on 3 November, his second camp in charge. The headline is Scott McTominay, back after a successful heart procedure, and Ché Adams, back after missing the October camp injured. James Penrice of Rangers is the one new face. Stephen Welsh then withdrew injured on 7 November and Ryan Porteous of LAFC replaced him.

Pocognoli told the BBC that the lesson from the 2–1 home defeat by Slovenia was fatigue, and that he will "rotate a bit more" and give substitutes more minutes. With Switzerland three days later, expect changes across the two games rather than one fixed XI. Andy Robertson, who passed 100 caps last month, can equal Kenny Dalglish's Scotland record of 102 this window.

North Macedonia: team news

Goce Sedloski called up 26 on 3 November, 20 of them playing abroad: Stole Dimitrievski (Valencia) in goal, Elif Elmas (Atalanta) and Enis Bardhi (Konyaspor) in midfield, Ezgjan Alioski (Lugano) at the back. Darko Churlinov, Imran Fetai, Stefan Despotovski and Nikola Serafimov return.

Bojan Miovski does not. The Rangers striker was left out without an official explanation; the BBC says he paid for a lack of club minutes. Marko Gjorgievski of Shkendija comes into the forward line in his place.

Form and the head to head

North Macedonia have lost five in a row without scoring, conceding 14, and are 12 games without a win, per the BBC. Their group results: 0–2 at home to Scotland, 0–2 in Slovenia, and 0–3 twice against Switzerland.

Scotland's group run is one win in four: the 2–0 in Skopje on 3 October, where Kieron Bowie scored his first Scotland goal and Scott McKenna was sent off late on, a goalless draw in Slovenia, and home defeats by Switzerland (0–3) and Slovenia (1–2). Three goals in four games is the weak part. Scotland create, but they have not finished.

What the odds say

The market has moved towards Scotland. Odds Directory's tracker has the home win shortening from 1.24 at opening to 1.17, the draw drifting from 5.35 to 6.41, and the goals line moving up from 2.5 to 2.75. Both teams to score "no" was about 1.43. Those moves say the market expects Scotland to win without conceding, and is less sure how many they score.

A price of 1.17 is short for a team that has won one of four. That is the weight of North Macedonia's record, not Scotland's. How a short price reads, and why a favourite at this level still loses more often than it looks, is in how to read the chance inside a price. For how the group table bends a price in the last two rounds, see what a Nations League table does to the price.

For BAI8's researched call on this match, open the Scotland vs North Macedonia match page. The Free plan covers 5 assessments a month, no card needed.

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What this does not tell you

It does not know either starting XI, which come about an hour before kick-off, or any withdrawal after 11 November. The table and form come from the sources listed, not from our own feed, and the prices are one reading of a moving market on one morning. It carries no BAI8 number: that is on the match page.