Robert Snodgrass has said all of Scotland are united in backing their national team but English people don't have the same passion and support for their country.
England have a record of regularly qualifying for tournaments but have failed to reach the latter stages in recent years, while Scotland have failed to reach a major finals since the 1998 World Cup.
"I think the full country does, to be honest," Snodgrass said, when asked if he enjoys watching England lose. "That's just the way we were brought up. I speak to English people and I don't think they want England to do well because it's the same old story all the time.
"That's sad, actually, when you think about it, when everyone up here is rooting for you being Scottish and wanting the country to do well. It's a different mentality. We want to get to tournaments, and for England it's 'we want to win it.'"
Snodgrass has recovered from an ankle injury in time to play against England, something he was determined not to miss.
"Oh straight away. At club level you have a lot of lads getting paid and stuff like that, but you would play for your country just for the love of playing for your country.
"That's the truth, for me anyway. You have your heart on your sleeve when you play games but playing for your country is special, you dream about it as a wee boy. You don't even think twice when you have some sort of injury, even when medical people tell you [that] you might not make it you do everything you possibly can to get there.
"I'll be honest, after the game my ankle was massive, you couldn't even straighten it. So you do think the worst. But 10 or 11 days later before you know it you're right back into the swing of things.
"Now it's good. To be honest I'd be lying if I said I am 100 percent, when you get two days training under your belt. But it couldn't have gone any better at club level to come up here with confidence."
The last time the sides faced off in a competitive fixture was 1999, when Scotland won 1-0 in the second leg of a European Championship playoff but failed to progress having lost the first leg 2-0, and Snodgrass wants to take the bragging rights this time.
He said: "It speaks for itself, doesn't it? They've always been the arch enemies and the rivals, they've always probably been that step ahead especially in the last 10 or 20 years, when we've been trying just to get to major tournaments and they are saying they should be winning them.
"I've played down there the last ten years so it's always been that heated, Scotland-England type of thing. I've been brought up with a family that is patriotic and loved the Scotland-England games so to see it first hand when we played down there at Wembley and lost 3-2, with goals from set pieces, it was hard to take.
"I think we watched about three motivational videos on the bus. Braveheart was one of them. So we're going in there thinking to ourselves 'we mean business here' and that was only a friendly. You're desperate to be a part of it.
"We wanted the bragging rights for beating England and it's no different on Friday."
England currently top Group F with seven points from their first three games, while Scotland lie fourth with four points.