Brazen Scotland arrive with bad intentions and can now brag about being the life of the party – Keith Jackson in Cologne

IF you’re going to brag about being the life and soul of the party, then first you really have to turn up for it.

Sure, Scotland may have been fashionably late to this tournament. Even so, the entrance they made here in Cologne last night was as bold, as brazen and as breathtaking as Steve Clarke could have wished for following that embarrassing face-plant of a false start in Munich last Friday night.

And even though ultimately it was only enough to snatch a point from the Swiss, it means they’ll still be right there, on the dance floor, when Group A reaches its climax on Sunday in Stuttgart. Scotland have arrived at Euro 2024 at last and if this is the way they mean to carry on, this summer could be heading into the wee small hours after all.

Scott McTominay got it all started with an opening goal just 13 minutes in, with it then followed by a gargantuan and heroic effort until the very last kick. At times, after Xherdan Shaqiri’s opportunistic equaliser, the tension was almost unbearable and Scotland also suffered the agony of losing Kieran Tierney to a potentially tournament-ending injury.

But still they soldiered on, carrying the fight, just as they did throughout the qualifiers to get here. Truly, this felt like quite a night. The miserable weather had cleared up around lunchtime as fans from both countries mingled and drank together along the banks of the Rhine. A culture clash? Perhaps. The Swiss might have been outnumbered and more than a little mystified but their bewilderment was the extent of the damage.

Once again, this hairy, kilted Scottish invasion force had come entirely in peace. As they always do. The same, however, could not be said of Clarke who arrived at the Cologne Stadium – some six kilometres