Scotland analysis: Kilted avengers put so much on line against Switzerland in Euros on destiny-shaping night

After Uefa encouraged competing teams to travel by aeroplane just once in the group stages, Scotland have used their ‘fly bye’ to head Cologne from Munich by air for tomorrow’s crucial Group A clash with Switzerland. Steve Clarke will hope to limit the SFA’s carbon footprint by avoiding triggering angry emissions from the Tartan Army. These are tremulous times for a group of a Scottish footballers and their manager.  

Maybe what’s needed is a good old-fashioned drinking controversy. One such enduring scandal occurred at Italia '90, when stories circulated that Mo Johnston and Jim Bett had been spotted carousing in a bar in Rapallo following the startling defeat to Costa Rica in their opening game. 

A rousing, charged-up, back-to-the-walls performance followed, in which Johnston scored the second goal against Sweden after Stuart McCall had slid in the opener in what was a bravura personal performance from the then Everton midfielder in only his seventh cap. The under-pressure Andy Roxburgh’s side were described as “avengers in kilts”. 

Scotland's players attend a MD-1 training session at the team's base camp in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. | AFP via Getty Images

It goes without saying that Clarke requires something similar in Cologne against Switzerland on Wednesday evening in what can reasonably be termed Scotland’s most consequential game since the last group game against Morocco at France ’98. 

It will certainly prove destiny shaping, for the Scotland manager as well as his players. After just one win in ten outings, scrutiny is getting fiercer. Admittedly several of these games were friendlies. Still, hitherto reassuring evidence that Clarke’s team get it right in the competitive environment is becoming flimsier. It now stands at four games without a win, although it’s debatable whether Friday night’s humiliation can count as a competitive fixture. Was it worse than Costa Rica? While different circumstances, it was similarly calamitous. 

Clarke has already spoken about aiming to make the country “like us” again. Roxburgh earned redemption, flamboyantly skipping around the Stadio Luigi Ferraris with a tartan scarf after Scotland's 2-1 victory over Sweden in Genoa. And though his side couldn't quite secure the point required against Brazil, the so-near-yet-so far scenario helped preserve his job and saw Roxburgh lead Scotland to Euro '92. That result over Sweden, Scotland's last-but-one victory at an overseas major final, meant everything. 

Who can be Clarke’s version of McCall? Does he need someone to save his skin? Received wisdom suggests that he might. It would take an act of bloody-minded defiance for the manager not to turn to Billy Gilmour, whose absence from the line-up at the first game was cause of so much agitation. 

Clarke was within his rights to exclude the midfielder. Gilmour’s ball-retention skills could well have been rendered meaningless by the Germans, who ensured Scotland rarely had the ball. But they are surely vital against Murat Yakin's less potent Swiss side. 

It remains to be seen whether his return comes at the expense of Callum McGregor or alongside him, with the latter combination proving so productive in the 0-0 draw against England in the second game of Euro 2020, when a 2-0 defeat to Czech Republic meant Clarke’s side were on the ropes again. 

Switzerland aren’t Germany. Few teams are. They don’t have someone like Toni Kroos dictating play in midfield with his metronomic passing range although Granit Xhaka performs a similarly inspirational, if not quite as elegant, role in midfield. 

Pressure is likely to increase on Scotland manager Steve Clarke should they not get a positive result against Switzerland in Cologne. | AFP via Getty Images

Michel Aebischer’s surprise deployment on the left against Hungary on Saturday was a game-changing alteration, with the Bologna midfielder normally preferring a central berth. Who will he be up against him at right wing-back if Yakin sticks with this plan, and Clarke sticks with five at the back? Anthony Ralston? Ross McCrorie? Perhaps even James Forrest? It would not surprise if Clarke produced one curveball. 

The players have been doing what they can to relieve tension, stopping short of the Johnston-Bett method. There’s been no news of anything untoward happening in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. By contrast, far more wholesome activities have taken place, with some players and staff spotted taking advantage of having Germany’s highest mountain on the doorstep at their base camp. 

Fortunately, no crampons or harnesses were necessary to scale Zugspitze. Scotland can ill-afford more casualties. 

A cable car transports thrill-seekers all 9,718 feet up, while a cogwheel train chugging through a tunnel chiselled out of the rock delivers them back down again. According to striker Lawrence Shankland, there were “a couple of interesting moments” on the cable car. “John Carver and Stuart Armstrong weren’t too comfortable!” he revealed. 

Captain Andy Murray is a picture of focus ahead of the Swiss match. | AFP via Getty Images

It’s possible to view four countries from the summit, including Switzerland. Clarke was not on the Zugspitze excursion but has had the Swiss in his sights since the draw was made late last year. This was always likely to be the one that really mattered,  more so now after Scotland conceded five times against Germany last Friday. With goal difference now standing at minus four, it effectively means Scotland need four points to reach the second stage. It’s win or draw or bust.

An unhelpful schedule, pitting Scotland against their German hosts first, meant there was always a danger Clarke’s side would be fighting for their tournament lives by the time they got to Cologne, Germany’s fourth city and the latest to be overrun by Tartan Army.  

While opening the tournament in Munich might have been an honour, it was also a thankless task. Clarke will be relieved to not have to factor in a pre-tournament opening ceremony into his preparations. Although the flag fluttering and dancing was mercifully brief, or at least briefer than normal, it was still far from a normal routine before a match. 

Clarke cautioned his players about being sidetracked by the "circus" going on around them, not that he used this an excuse afterwards. There will be no standing on ceremony tomorrow. 

‘Get intae them’ might not be an appropriate phrase in these more sophisticated football times and it certainly doesn’t need to be said in earshot of Ryan Porteous, the suspended centre-half whose continued involvement in the tournament depends on Scotland getting a result tomorrow evening. 

But some old Scottish passion, strangely absent on Friday, combined with the confident possession play that saw Clarke’s side earn a result against the odds at Wembley three years ago, can ignite a much-needed spark by the Rhine.