Alan Pattullo’s thoughts from Cologne.
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00:00This is Alan Patullo, Scotsman football writer, arriving at the Cologne stadium ahead of this
00:17Titanic match tonight, Scotland vs Switzerland.
00:21Crunch match for Steve Clarke and his team as they try and prolong their interest in
00:28the tournament, nobody wants their last game against Hungary to be effectively a meaningless
00:37game for Scotland, so really they have to make sure they claim a point, or three points
00:43tonight, the latter preferably, against Switzerland.
00:47It's going to be a tough night, we were here last night, you might have joined me on my
00:52video last night when I was outside the stadium, it was a rather more bleak, bleak night last
00:57night, rain was coming down and it got heavier and heavier as the night progressed, working
01:05away in the media room behind me and the rain was splattering down on the canopy, but now
01:12as you can see, lovely conditions today for the game tonight.
01:18Steve Clarke looked pretty tense last night I have to say, a bit terse possibly, he had
01:23his game head on, certainly, a lot for him to consider tonight, what team to pick, a
01:31lot of talk about Billy Gilmore returning to the side, whether Grant Hanley comes in
01:36for a starting slot, I suggest he might, but we'll find out in the next couple of hours
01:42when the team is announced.
01:45This is the Cologne stadium, it's an impressive stadium, it's a proper football stadium, quite
01:51far out from the city centre, I've just had a very interesting tram ride from the city
01:56centre up here, about half an hour, the tram, there was a fault with one of the trams behind,
02:02sorry, in front, so we were caught for about half an hour waiting for the tram to come
02:10after they fixed a fault, so yeah, there was a huge, huge build up of fans trying to get
02:16on, so it was a pretty sweaty, pretty uncomfortable ride, but obviously all the usual songs from
02:24both sets of fans, Switzerland fans are here in great numbers as well I have to say, as
02:29they always travel well, I can remember that from being at Euro 96 for the Scotland against
02:35Switzerland game and having the Koist scored such a great winner, nice to think there could
02:39be a Scotland player that steps up to the mark tonight, if the Thrash went in from the
02:44edge of the box, that would be something else, this stadium has had a bit of football
02:50history behind me, Scottish football history, you might have heard me talk about the links
02:57with Dundee, Cologne FC Dundee, Dundee remarkably still hold, still have the highest, the ones
03:07that have inflicted the highest defeat on Cologne FC, at least the equal highest defeat,
03:148-1 at Denz Park, September 1962, Bayern Munich, they share that honour with Bayern Munich
03:20would you believe, they beat Cologne 7-0 once, so they have the same marginal defeat with
03:27Bayern Munich and Dundee, quite something, in the way leg here, it was the Lungersdorfer
03:34Stadium I think it was called, on this site, they rebuilt it a while back, but the old
03:41stadium was on this site, Dundee lost 4-0 in the away leg having won 8-1 at Denz, Rangers
03:47came to grief here I think 5-0 in the early 80's and Celtic lost 2-0 here before turning
03:54it round 3-0 in the early 90's in the UEFA Cup tie, so yeah, Scottish teams not the greatest
04:02success here, Willie Henderson scored for Rangers in extra time back in the late 60's
04:11I think it was, to put Rangers through in a European tie, Rangers won the first leg
04:16at Eibach 3-0 then lost the second leg here, Bayern Munich 3-0 as well, went to extra time
04:21and Willie Henderson got the all important goal, so yeah, it's mixed fortunes, mixed
04:27fortunes, hopefully tonight can be a glory night here in Cologne, I'm really looking
04:33forward to it, I'm going to head in now and start preparing, waiting for the team lines,
04:40that's the most important thing now, keep in contact with scotsman.com, we'll be live
04:48vlogging later and my match book will be on, hopefully, soon after the final whistle.