The Scotsman Bulletin Friday December 1 2023 #Football #Euros
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Friday. It's almost the weekend.
00:13 I'm Alan Young. I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Sport Editor, Mark
00:17 Atkinson, to take a look ahead to some of the big events in the sporting world. Hi,
00:23 Mark.
00:24 Morning, Al.
00:25 Let's have a look at the front page first. We devote most of the front page today to
00:33 the terribly sad news yesterday, and that was the death of former Chancellor and Edinburgh
00:39 MP Alasdair Darling at the age of just 70. Also at the top of the page there, you can
00:46 see we follow up on last night's action in Europe. Rangers could only manage a draw at
00:54 Eibrox and we also have tributes to the Pogues singer Shane McGowan, who also sadly died.
01:01 But Mark, looking ahead to the weekend, it's going to be quite an exciting one for football
01:08 fans, but not because of anything that's happening on the pitch.
01:13 That's right, Alan. Tomorrow we discover who Scotland are playing at Euro 2024. The draw
01:20 is taking place in the German city of Hamburg. And yeah, hugely exciting. It's when it really
01:26 becomes real that we're there. We find out who we are, we can plot our route to the final.
01:32 Well, maybe not the final, maybe the group stage. Again, the group stages. But yeah,
01:37 we'll know all the teams, all the fixtures. We'll know when Scotland are playing. It's
01:41 going to be a big occasion for Scottish football.
01:44 So who do we want? Who do we want to avoid?
01:48 Well, Scotland are in pot three. So the pots are slightly skewed. There's some big teams
01:57 and small pots. So I'll say who we want to avoid in pot four. Italy are in pot four,
02:02 defending champions. Now, not quite sure how that's happened, really. But defending champions
02:07 are fourth seed. They're the only pot four team that I think Scotland would really want
02:10 to avoid, like the rest of the draw. In pot one, you've got your top eight teams. There's
02:16 some big, big teams in there. France and Spain are in there. England are in there. Our correspondent,
02:22 Moira Gordon, who's our big explainer, she's saying, actually, we quite fancy England because
02:28 they're notoriously slow starters in tournaments. And we drew with them in the last Euros. It's
02:34 not actually a bad shout from Moira. I wouldn't mind playing Germany. I know they're the host
02:38 nations, but they're not the team they once were. And they could be a bit undercooked
02:44 coming into the tournament. So avoid France, avoid Spain. I think that would be the two
02:48 ones to avoid. Spain would probably get exact some revenge on us. And in pot two, that's
02:53 when you've got your kind of middle nations. You've got your Denmarks, Austrias, Turkeys,
02:58 teams like that. I'm not sure I'd want to play Turkey. They beat us in a friendly last
03:01 year. They're an upwardly mobile nation. But there is Albania in pot two. So you would
03:07 probably want to try and get someone like that.
03:10 Absolutely. There's so much confidence in the Scotland team at the moment, and how it's
03:17 been transformed under Steve Clarke. Do you think that extends to looking at the Euros
03:26 next year and thinking, actually, we could actually do something, at least get out of
03:31 the group for the first time?
03:33 Yeah, I think in the cold light of day, the expectation of Scotland should be to progress
03:38 to the knockout stages, not least because there are some groups will have three teams
03:43 out of four qualifying because it's an expanded tournament. So you really only need to win
03:48 one match to have a good chance of progressing. Of course, Scotland have never got to be on
03:53 the group stages of any tournament, be it the Euros or the World Cup. So there's a monkey
03:58 on Scotland's back that needs to be removed. But if any group of players in recent times
04:03 can do it, it is this one. A lot of those players are peaking. They're playing really
04:08 well under Steve Clarke, as you alluded to. There's lots of optimism. Scotland will go
04:13 there with a huge backing. There's so many Scotland fans who have already booked their
04:16 tickets going out there. So yeah, anything other than progression would probably be deemed
04:21 as a disappointment. But of course, a lot depends on the group. If you suddenly get
04:26 France, Turkey and Italy in the group, then maybe you'll start to temper expectations.
04:31 So let's see who we get and then we can decide whether it's the final or the third place
04:36 playoff rating for them.
04:39 Talk a little bit about how we're going to be covering this tomorrow and what time we
04:44 should be tuning in.
04:45 Yeah, so the draw takes place at 5pm. So just block your afternoon out, watch the scores
04:50 coming in domestically and then tune in to BBC Two at five o'clock. That's how you can
04:54 watch it on television. We've got Alan Pattillo over in Hamburg and we'll be tuning in with
04:59 him as soon as the draw is made to get his reaction to the teams we're playing. They
05:05 say the draw starts at five. Let's be honest, these things take quite a long time, probably
05:08 closer to six before we find out our full group. And then we'll have loads of reaction,
05:14 analysis, interviews from Steve Clarke, from SFA figures and from our opponents as well.
05:19 So there'll be all manner of content coming across scotsman.com, words, digital, video
05:26 and of course in Scotland on Sunday.
05:29 Absolutely. And the important info for a lot of people, how to get tickets.
05:34 Well, some tickets have already been sold and there will be another batch that come
05:40 out in due course. The final date for that hasn't been released yet, but there are not
05:43 many tickets left. And then it'll be Scotland supporters club members who will get the remaining
05:48 briefs. We'll know obviously the size of the stadium because the venues are also picked
05:54 tomorrow and then we can start to find out how many tickets are available. But let's
05:58 be honest, demand is going to outstrip supply quite considerably for Scotland matches.
06:05 Yeah, absolutely. Excited already. Thanks very much for all that. Mark, please keep
06:09 an eye on scotsman.com throughout the day for all the very latest updates. If you can
06:14 do subscribe and then you will not miss a thing. And of course, if you're out and about
06:19 today, please do also pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Mark. It's bye for now.
06:25 [inaudible].
06:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]