Gritty Scotland give themselves a chance of making history with progress to knockouts still a possibility after outperforming Switzerland, writes IAN HERBERT Scotland found the golden spirit of their qualifying campaign to keep hopes alive By Ian Herbert Published: 22:15, 19 June 2024 | Updated: 22:22, 19 June 2024 e-mail View comments A tide of royal blue support on the banks of Rhine lifted Scotland to another level on Wednesday night and kept their place in these championships alive. The team they urged on were confronted by opponents who threatened them and just briefly, looked like they might bury them, but Scotland were lifted to another level. They took the point which means a win against Hungary in Stuttgart on Sunday could take them to the knock-out stages of a tournament for the first time.

You would not say it was a European sophistication from Scotland. Just direct, vertical, muscular highly effective football. And it worked.

Amid the cacophony of noise, they struck a post and could walk away in the knowledge that that were the better side. The Tartan Army had amassed on the steps of Cologne’s monumental cathedral by lunchtime, belting out ‘No Scotland, no party’ - the joke being that there was no point heading into that place to pray, because it wasn’t big enough for the help the country now needed. The sun came out as they drifted towards Innenstadt and up to the stadium and long before kick-off approached, the supreme, infectious Scottish optimism was b.