{"id":1023876,"date":"2026-06-13T10:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T10:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1023876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T10:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T10:43:19","slug":"gerard-butler-predicts-scotland-world-cup-win-against-england-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1023876\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerard Butler predicts Scotland World Cup win against England \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gerard Butler has urged the Scotland team to \u201cplay like the lions you are\u201d at the World Cup in America.<\/p>\n

The Hollywood actor said he was confident about the team\u2019s chances as he predicted a 2-0 win against England in the final.<\/p>\n

The Paisley-born star said he also thought the national team would beat Haiti on Sunday morning in Boston, its first group match.<\/p>\n

Asked for his predictions, Butler told BBC Radio Scotland\u2019s The Saturday Show:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m confident. I\u2019m really proud of the team we have right now. If there was ever a chance of getting out of the group it is this one.<\/p>\n

\"‘I<\/a>\"Sir<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we will win against Haiti 2-0. And Scotland to win the World Cup. We\u2019ll win 2-0, final, hopefully against England.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FellowFellow actor and Scot Tony Curran was part of the festivities (Andrew Milligan\/PA) <\/p>\n

The Scot said the team had already made the nation \u201cso proud\u201d, before adding: \u201cWe get goosebumps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already done it \u2013 just go out and play like the lions you are, play with your hearts and have fun,\u201d Butler added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to put pressure on it, because the fact is we are at the World Cup and it is amazing. We are so proud of you boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tartan Army arrived in force in Boston ahead of the country\u2019s first World Cup match in 28 years.<\/p>\n

\"AlteredAltered Images star Clare Grogan joined fellow Scots in Boston (Andrew Milligan\/PA) <\/p>\n

First Minister John Swinney, actor Gerard Butler and singer Clare Grogan are among famous figures who have made the trip to the Massachusetts capital ready for the team\u2019s first fixture against Haiti on Saturday at 9pm local time \u2013 2am BST.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Scotland fans across the country are preparing for the national team\u2019s return with fanzones, pubs and other venues expected to be packed well into the night.<\/p>\n

The late-night kick-offs for Scotland\u2019s group stage games means that most councils around the country have chosen to allow extended licensing hours for pubs and other venues.<\/p>\n

Monday June 15 will be a bank holiday to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gerard Butler has urged the Scotland team to \u201cplay like the lions you are\u201d at the World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1023877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[6207,99350,4573,748,94,7416,4884,7852,12,712,93,79,282978,16,15,1514],"class_list":["post-1023876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-america","tag-bbc-radio-scotland","tag-boston","tag-britain","tag-football","tag-gerard-butler","tag-great-britain","tag-john-swinney","tag-news","tag-scotland","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-the-tartan-army","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116742391763532345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}