Alan Pattullo tunes in from Hamburg to speak to Mark Atkinson about Scotland's Euro 2024 draw.
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00:00 Good evening and welcome to this very special edition of the Scotsman football show.
00:07 My name is Mark Atkinson and I'm delighted to be joined by Alan Pattula, one of our chief
00:11 football writers who's in Hamburg and has just witnessed the Euro 2024 draw.
00:16 Scotland, if you don't know already, have been put in a group, Group A, alongside host
00:22 Germany, Switzerland and Hungary and will play the opening match on June the 14th next
00:28 year in Munich. Alan, what's your immediate reaction to that draw?
00:34 Excitement. One word, excitement. Who could have dreamed of Scotland being in the position
00:42 of opening a tournament, the eyes of Europe on Scotland against Germany on June the 14th
00:50 in Munich, 25 years after obviously Scotland had the same or similar honour of opening
00:56 the World Cup when the eyes of the world were on Scotland. A billion people, I think the
01:02 headline of the Scotsman was the following morning after that draw. Not sure exactly
01:06 how many will be watching Scotland v Germany but yeah, it's going to guarantee obviously
01:15 so much hype, so much excitement and yeah, I don't think there will be many Scottish
01:21 football fans left in Scotland that week.
01:24 Absolutely, absolutely. All the focus has been on Germany. They've not played a competitive
01:30 match now for a year and they haven't been in great form so some would argue that they're
01:34 not a bad draw to get. Let's talk about the other two teams though because Switzerland
01:39 and Hungary, what was your immediate reaction to that? Were you happy to see those two teams
01:45 come out or should we be overly concerned by having these two nations in our group?
01:50 I'm quite comfortable with that. Let's face it, any team Scotland get, you have to be
01:57 worried about, you have to think that's going to be a challenge. We also have to remember
02:01 that although Scotland are in pot three, all the teams in Group A are ranked higher, all
02:07 three teams are ranked higher than Scotland in the FIFA rankings. It's going to be a test,
02:12 absolutely. I think perhaps Steve Clarke's biggest task in the months and weeks ahead
02:18 is to perhaps take the emphasis away from that opening game against Germany and try
02:22 and ensure other people remember there's two games after that which probably have a greater
02:29 bearing on whether Scotland can qualify for the knockout stage for the first time in history.
02:33 That's obviously the task and I think this draw gives Scotland a chance of doing that.
02:40 Indeed, indeed. Does Steve Clarke think that or was he being his usual cool, calm, collected
02:46 self and not giving too much away when quizzed about the draw?
02:50 He was keeping a very, very cool head on, which is pretty easy here in Hamburg where
02:55 it's minus two or three and it's been constantly snowing for the last 48 hours. But no, Clarke
03:00 was being very cool afterwards when we spoke to him. I think he has to get his head around
03:10 who we're playing. Obviously, he was asked by a lot of Hungarian journalists, by German
03:15 journalists, by Swiss journalists, by their teams. I feel sorry for managers in these
03:22 situations. They're suddenly expected to come up with all these names of players they're
03:25 likely to be facing just in a few minutes after the draw has been made. So, he'll go
03:30 away and do his homework, I think. Obviously, the immediate task is trying to get four friendlies
03:37 organised before Euro 2024 begins. I think Switzerland were one of the countries that
03:43 Scotland were eyeing up as a potential opponent to play in a friendly. So, that's been nixed
03:48 by the draw. So, they'll have to look elsewhere. But, yeah, there's plenty of work for Steve
03:54 to be getting on with when he leaves Hamburg tomorrow, I think. So, yeah, we, the reporters
04:04 and fans, we can start the business of hyping it all up and looking forward to the tournament.
04:10 Clarke really has to get down to business now.
04:12 He does. He does. Just finally, before I let you go, Alan, what's it been like today being
04:18 at the draw at Hamburg? You look quite impressive on television.
04:21 Yeah, no, it's been great. It's been great. We're the media. We're actually in the auditorium
04:27 actually in the hall itself. We were in a little pen next door and waiting for the managers
04:34 to come out into a mixed zone and speak to them all. That was good fun. Trying to pick
04:39 off various managers, various personalities. Rudi Völler was there speaking about the
04:44 challenge you're facing in Scotland. Of course, he played against Scotland in Euro '92 for
04:48 Germany. So, that was interesting seeing him. And yeah, it's been great seeing all these
04:53 sort of recognisable faces, all these great players. Buffon obviously was involved. And
04:58 yeah, you sort of turn a corner and walk into a European great. It's quite exciting, quite
05:05 thrilling. There's also the slight amusement of some interruption. I don't know if you
05:11 heard that during the...
05:12 Oh, we definitely heard that on the television.
05:14 Yeah. So, that's... Quite how that happened is extraordinary because, as you can imagine,
05:20 the security has been very, very tight here. So, I'm very impressed somebody managed to
05:27 indulge in that prank. But yeah, it's been a good day. It's been a great venue. And yeah,
05:34 the usual kind of had to sit through half an hour of preamble for the actual business
05:39 of the job beginning. But I guess we all expected that. And now it's a case of just getting
05:46 on with it. And it's just great having clarification of who's Scotland playing now, isn't it? And
05:50 I know fans will be hitting their sky scanners tonight and trying to get all the flights
05:56 they can over to Munich, over to Germany. And it's just a case of, yeah, trains, planes
06:04 and automobiles to get to Germany.
06:07 Absolutely. Absolutely. The whole country is desperately excited. Alan, I know you've
06:11 still got some copy to write and we should probably sign off before our own video potentially
06:16 gets interrupted by anything. But no, thank you for joining us from a very chilly Hamburg
06:21 this evening. Just to clarify, Scotland will be joining Group A and they will face Germany,
06:26 Blitz and Hungary. Loads of reaction and analysis online and in tomorrow's Scotland Sunday.
06:32 Alan, safe journey home from Hamburg. Thank you all for joining us.
06:37 Good night.