The Scotsman Football Show - Euro 2024 draw - video Dailymotion

The Scotsman

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.

The Scotsman Football Show - Euro 2024 draw

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