Scotland v Switzerland: Euro 2024 – live | Euro 2024

28 minutes: It’s fair to say this was coming. The Swiss won a flurry of corners and seconds before the goal a banner appeared announcing that they had enjoyed 72 percent of the ball so far. It’s a wonderful response from the Swiss falling behind and their tails already in the air, Widmer curling a soaring shot into the top right corner. It’s not very wide and is just inches too tall.

GOAL! Scotland 1-1 Switzerland (Shaqiri 26)

24 minutes: Schar slides a sweet pass down the inside right channel to almost release Widmer. Robertson slides to clear and the flag goes up anyway, but the Swiss are starting to rule this match, despite the result. “I think I still got goosebumps after watching Flower of Scotland when that goal went in,” wrote Brad McMillan. “As 1,055 people said before me on Twitter, it made me proud to be Scottish and I’m English!”

22 minutes: Switzerland are on top right now. Another corner conceded as Widmer broke down the right, almost going past Robertson. Hanley is getting on with it, but Scotland surely cannot continue to allow standards like this.

21 minutes: Ralston is good to go after some correction.

19 minutes: UEFA now awarded an own goal to Fabian Scherr. This is ridiculous. McTominay’s shot was right on target and while Schar made a wild effort to clear it, sending it back and into his own net, he only did so in an attempt to stop a goalbound shot. So no. However, as things stand, Scotland’s all-time leading goalscorer in the European championship the finals are officially an own goal (2).

18 minutes: Vargas makes good ground down the left and his low, sizzling shot-cum-cross is deflected into the side-netting by Robertson. Angle. Vargas takes and Ralston lands a jab to clear him. The game stops.

16 minutes: McTominay clears that one with a head as well. But there will be no counter as Rodriguez has a shot from distance. Always wide right.

15 minutes: If someone was going to score for Scotland, it was certainly their qualifying goal machine Scott McTominay. He also started the drive by clearing the corner. Eha. And now, can lightning strike twice because Tierney has just repeated Hendry’s mistake just before the goal, crowding casually wide to the right of his own goal. Another Swiss corner to come.

GOAL! Scotland 1-0 Switzerland (McTominay 13)

12 minutes: Hendry fires a back pass to the right of the goal for a Switzerland angle. Exceptionally careless. And from the corner…

11 minutes: It’s all a bit cheesy right now. First Gilmour passes the ball offside close to his own half, then Vargas misses an opportunity to put pressure on Scotland carelessly taking it for a toss himself. Forward and up.

9 minutes: Speculative ball from the Swiss right. Hanley takes him out under pressure from Widmer, only to fall on the ball as he crosses the line. It should be a corner, but neither the referee nor the linesman notices the mistake and Scotland get away with it. Kick from the door.

8 minutes: Switzerland step on the ball for the first time after the kickoff. A patient passes by. But then Shaqiri crossed the ball to McTominay, who tried to clear Adams through the middle. Rodriguez slides in to block.

6 minutes: Henley’s loose pass from the back is pounced on by Vargas, but the Swiss doesn’t control well and what looked like a dangerous counter chance was gone. “My bet is that Widmer joins that illustrious list of goals,” writes Phil West, a leg you can analyze in more ways than one.

4 minutes: McTominay lifts this one higher but it’s an easy pick for Sommer in the Switzerland goal. Decent start from the front foot from the Scots though. Just what they need after that great, cowardly performance against Germany.

3 minutes: McTominay punches him and can’t beat the first guy, falling as he does, putting a tin cover on him. But the ball sailed for a throw that Tierney fired long. Adams and Robertson cause enough problems in the box to win another corner. McTominay to take this one too.

2 minutes: Robertson throws in quickly down the left flank and McGinn wins a corner from Akanji. McTominay to take.

1 minute: Almost immediately, a foot race down Switzerland began between Ndoye and Tierney. The Scottish defender wins this one, but only because he is clever enough to draw the foul. This could be a battle to watch.

Scotland got the ball rolling. What an atmosphere! It’s not quite at Turkey-Georgia level, but it’s okay.

The teams are out! Scotland in their famous dark blue, Switzerland in second choice white. National anthems are played: anthems of bright morning skies turning red, of fighting for your little hill and valley and sending people home to think again. The last positive ringing around the Müngersdorfer Stadium. Great! “On most days, a single malt will win over a slab of Toblerone,” observes Krishna Murthy, giving everyone a glimmer of hope at 43.8% ABV. We’re leaving in a minute.

Pendent clock. Here are the commemorative trinkets Andrew Robertson and Granit Xhaka will be handing out before kick-off. I have to say, without any bias, Scottish is a thing of timeless grace and beauty…

… given that Switzerland’s efforts have a real air of quick assembly, we’ll do that. The worry is, of course, that we’ll be using the exact same phrases to describe the teams later, they’re just not necessarily assigned to the same countries. Anyway, good luck everyone.

Steve Clarke talks to the BBC. “It was always our intention to start Billy Gilmour in this game and so he starts… the only difference between all the other games is that it’s a Friday-Wednesday build-up and not the usual Saturday-Wednesday… that’s it! … we do the same things … we work the same way … tonight we hope you’ll see the real thing Scotland on the pitch… we have to play better… we have to do better… we believe that if we play to the best of our ability, we will get something out of the game.”

Here is the full unabridged list of all-time top goalscorers for Scotland European championship finals. It’s probably time to do something about it.

• Paul McStay (v CIS, Euro 92)

• Brian McClair (v CIS, Euro 92)

• Gary McAllister (v CIS, Euro 92)

• Ally McCoist (v Switzerlandeuro 96)

• Callum McGregor (vs Croatia, Euro 2020)

• Antonio Rüdiger (vs Scotland, Euro 2024)

The other Group A match ended with a 2-0 win for hosts Germany over Hungary. Let Barry Glendenning take you on a journey…

… and all this means that Germany has qualified for the knockout phase. The Swiss can join them tonight with a win, although a draw will almost certainly prove enough to see them through when it all comes down to one way or another. Scotland they won’t be out if they lose tonight, but they will be seriously pushing their luck, especially if their goal difference takes another hit, compromising any chances of sneaking in with one of the best third-place finishes. However, if they can get something, anything, from tonight’s game, they will go into Sunday night’s clash with the Hungarians still full of hope.

The history books don’t give us too many hints about what might happen tonight. Alternatively, they can tell you whatever you want to hear. Scotland and Switzerland they have not met for 18 years, since the Swiss won a friendly at Hampden Park 3-1 in 2006. But the last time the teams met competitively, at Villa Park during Euro 96, Ali McCoist’s strike in the 37- that minute turned out to be decisive. It wasn’t enough to get the Scots out of the group, of course; still the last winner scored by Scotland in any tournament (and as much as we’d like to, we just can’t count the Kirin Cup in 2006). So there are swings and turns… even when reduced to the wider historical sweep, with Scotland winning five of their first six matches against Switzerland (between 1931 and 1976) but winning just two of their next eight (losing three). But however you spin it, one thing is true: at least there’s no heavy luggage here.

Scotland made two changes to the team that started the 5-1 capitulation against Germany on the opening night. One of them is forced: Grant Hanley comes in at the back for the suspended Ryan Porteous. The other is tactical: Billy Gilmour replaces Ryan Christie to bolster the midfield.

Switzerland made one change to their starting XI after their 3-1 win over Hungary. The Powercube is back: Xherdan Shaqiri replaces Kwadwo Duah in attack.

The teams

Preamble