The journey from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the sleepy hollow near the Austrian border that’s been home to the Scotland squad this past week, to Munich, where they open Euro 2024 against the host nation on Friday night, is about an hour and a half by road.
Or to put it another way, a different dimension in time.
From the solitude of a small town to the surreal sights of the big city. The Scottish invasion. The hype, the hoopla, the sense of anticipation so present on the streets that you can almost reach out and touch it.
Head coach Steve Clarke blinked hard as he entered the heaving auditorium at 17:54 local time for his eve-of-game press conference. He had a look on his face akin to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. He knew he wasn’t in Garmisch-Partenkirchen any more.
At their training base there’s been a small posse of reporters all week. Here, there was standing room only. Thirteen camera crews lined up at the back. One question per person.
The competition for the mic was as fierce as anything that might happen when the big show begins.
And from the Scots, we heard fighting talk, we heard self-belief, we heard rallying words.
“Everyone’s fully fit, flying, desperate to be selected and ready to go,” said Clarke.
“We don’t want any regrets,” said captain Andy Robertson with a stern look on his face. “We’re ready, excited, all eyes are on us and it’s time to show what we can do.”
Compared to the sedate language of earlier in the week, this was a different level. Scotland left Garmisch-Partenkirchen in early afternoon on Thursday and, clearly, on the coach trip through the Schwabing-Freimann district and the Werner-Heinsenberg-Allee road approach to the stadium, they put their game faces on.
History was one of the themes. Many men’s Scotland teams with many immortal players have tried to make it out of the group stage of a major championship and none of them have ever managed it.
“We believe we can do it,” said Robertson. Of course, times have changed and, with a 24-team European Championship now, it’s easier now to do it than it ever was when Denis Law and Jimmy Johnstone and Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness were trying and failing.
Third in the group might be enough. “Four points” has been Clarke’s mantra.
If they get even one point against Germany on Friday, then cue euphoria among the Scots in Bavaria. If they get three, then Oktoberfest will come early, dressed in a kilt with bagpipes skirling.
‘Scotland fans everywhere’
Image source, Getty Images
The perfect start is a dream for sure, but it’s one that has sustained a reported 200,000 Scots travelling all the way to Munich.
They’re everywhere. Everywhere! On the footpaths, in the bars and soon, no doubt, dunked in the fountains.
Not in the press room at the Allianz Arena in body but most certainly there in spirit. Robertson spoke about them. Clarke spoke about them. In part, the steeliness shown by the Liverpool full-back must come from an overriding desire to not let these people down.
Robertson has good memories of this stadium and a moral to draw on, if he so desires. In the spring of 2019 his club drew 0-0 at home to Bayern Munich in the knockouts of the Champions League. Not a lot of people gave Liverpool a chance of winning the return leg then, just as virtually nobody gives Scotland a chance of winning here now, but they did; they won 3-1.
He smiled at the memory of it. Jurgen Klopp, he said, would be at the game on Friday. He told Robertson in an exchange of texts a week ago.
“Hopefully he’ll enjoy his night, but not that much,” Robertson said of his old manager.
It’s now just gone 7.40pm in Munich. We’re sitting in a deserted stand overlooking an empty pitch in a stadium without noise. In 24 hours you will not be able to hear yourself think in this place.
It will be the centre of Scotland’s universe. The measure of its dreams. The calm is still here, just about, but the storm is coming. Oh boy is it coming.