Scotland confirm two Hampden pre-World Cup friendlies as new opponent comes to town

The latter match against a side led by former Rangers manager Dick Advocaat will act as a Hampden farewell for the Scotland players, who will head to a pre-World Cup came in North America shortly afterwards.

The Japan game at 5pm on Saturday on 28 March will be the first time Scotland have played at Hampden since World Cup qualification was secured in November against Denmark. It’s also the first time the Scots have hosted Japan although the countries have met on three occasions, including when Scotland won the Kirin Cup – which was hosted by Japan – in 2006.

The Curacao meeting on 30 May – kick-off 1pm - will be the first ever clash between the countries and will be further notable for bringing Advocaat back to Hampden, where he enjoyed many visits as Rangers manager between 1998 and 2001. Curacao are members of the CONCACAF federation like Haiti, who Scotland play in their opening World Cup game before taking on Morocco and Brazil.

"Following our normal approach of arranging tough friendly fixtures, we were pleased to secure the visit of Japan - who are in the top 20 of FIFA's World Rankings,” said manager Steve Clarke. "We're also looking forward to welcoming Curacao to Glasgow, which should give us a feel for the CONCACAF federation before our game against Haiti.

"It will be great to meet up with the squad for the first time since that crazy, momentous night, when they took us back to the World Cup after such a long time.”

"We can spend the first day reminiscing but then it's back to the serious business of preparing for the summer."

Scotland are also in negotiations to play Ivory Coast in the north of England in March and Peru in June in the United States, which would be their final pre-World Cup game.