Texas Pete

I doubt it as it’s a friendly. Scotland National Team Facebook/Twitter pages would probably be the best place to check.

Depends how they do it I suppose. As long as there are the same number of beer queues as there are turnstiles then it shouldn’t be a problem. You can’t have people in a stadium for the guts of 5 hours without providing refreshments. In fairness though I haven’t seen any confirmation that beer will be available at Wembley. Maybe they won’t sell it for the reason you have mentioned?

It’s a pain in the arse but I’d rather this happened now than the day of the Czech game or any of our group games for that matter. None of the 6 have tested positive and none have symptoms so hopefully none of them have the virus.

The quarantine rules don’t apply to elite sports. If they did the Czechs and would need to isolate for 10 days as the Czech Republic is an amber country. Not sure what rules they will need to follow when they get here but it doesn’t sound like the best preparation for a big match.

No I don’t think so. Not the rest of the UK anyway. The rules are probably more lax in Czech Republic. There was a difference in how long Tierney and Christie had to isolate but not the fact that they had to. I think the self isolation period is the same throughout the UK now but I could be wrong. They might know more than we do but they don’t know more about it than the Scottish government who have basically said they are talking shite. Fair point about the Czechs but I’m sure it was the Croatians moaning about the cost of their base at St Andrews. Was a few days ago I read it so I can’t remember the specific details.

Only thing that makes sense. The Scottish Government have already come out and said their whole squad wouldn’t need to isolate if one player tests positive. They would need to provide close contacts of that person and they would also need to isolate so maybe they assume all players would count as close contacts? This would only be the case if they weren’t bothering with any social distancing at all. The Croatia one is weird though as I think they were talking about moving their base to Wales where the rules are very similar. Sounds like cost cutting to me.

Not accurate. Our whole squad didn’t need to self isolate when Armstrong tested positive. That’s just what the Czechs and Croatians are claiming. I suspect they don’t like the social distancing rules which they claim is costing them a lot more than they were going to pay when they booked the places originally.

Maybe but both stadiums are going to be around a quarter full so you’d think the seat spacing would be similar.

Yeah I noticed that. Seems odd.

Scotland 5 - 0 Czech Republic England 0 - 5 Scotland Croatia 0 - 5 Scotland Predictions are about as much use as a shite flavoured lollipop. I’ll probably be closer than some people are.

Tells you on your ticket just under the venue.

Yeah nobody can sit together. All tickets are spaced 4 seats apart in each row.

That’s exactly what will happen. Why would people go in earlier than they have to when they already need to be in a couple of hours early? UEFA must know that will happen and should be prepared for it.

This means Croatia have only won 2 of their last 9 matches and these victories were at home to Cyprus and Malta. Hardly great form.

Seems odd that players who test positive rarely have symptoms. When Armstrong tested positive he had no symptoms and nobody else caught it (even his close contacts, Tierney and Christie). Hopefully this is the case again. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Fleck tests negative tomorrow as well which seems to happen a lot when footballers test positive. The Scottish government would’ve taken pelters (from non-football fans anyway) if they had vaccinated players who are mostly under 30.

They did consider it I think but rejected the idea. It’s daft that you can buy alcohol at rugby, darts and snooker etc. in Scotland but you can’t get it at Scotland games. Half the people in the ground are pished and sneak their own drink in anyway.

That is very lucky. There must be some very unlucky people who have very early slots for all 3 games.

Gauld would likely get even less game time as Clarke clearly prefers Fleck to him. Not exactly the same type of player obviously but in general terms - Fleck is in the squad and Gauld isn’t.

Fleck won’t be dropped from the squad unless he develops symptoms and becomes too ill to play or possibly if he keeps testing positive. If he has 2 negative tests he can re-join the squad subject to Spanish self isolation rules.

UEFA changed their rules a few years ago. Alcohol is available at all UEFA matches (including Champions League and Euro 2020 matches etc) depending on local legislation.

I’m 1230-1300 for the Czech game so can’t complain about that. It’s the first game at a Hampden so I’m expecting things to wrong and for there to be delays anyway. 1700-1730 for the other 2 games though. Fine for Wembley as we can get an overpriced cup of warm lager but sitting in Hampden for 2.5 hours before kick off will be a pain. Especially if we are already out of the tournament.

They know fine well most people will turn up at the last minute of their slot. As far as I can see they are just trying to make sure there isn’t the big rush (and therefore big queues) to get in 15-30 minutes before kick off time that there normally is. It should also ensure trains and buses aren’t packed at any particular time as people will be travelling to the stadium over a three hour period. It’s not ideal but I’m not sure how else they could’ve done it.

This is pretty optimistic. Going inside to shelter from the rain is more likely. The East Stand has an outdoor bit after you go through the turnstiles but I’m pretty sure you’ll need to pass through the turnstiles and be inside the ground during your entry slot in the rest of the stadium.

I doubt he’ll replace him unless he needs to drop out. Bringing someone else in from the outside would be a big risk which should probably be avoided unless completely necessary. Yeah that’s the main worry. As someone else has said though there has been numerous instances, including a previous Scotland camp, where one or more people have tested positive and the rest of the squad were unaffected. It’s funny that most of these cases seem to be asymptomatic. If he shows no symptoms and nobody else tests positive it will likely be a false positive. Fingers crossed that’s what it is.

I did think of that a while ago but what would be the point other than so they could have fewer stewards? If UEFA are making people sit in the stadium for up to three hours so they can save a few bob on stewards it will be a poor show.