The roar in the Allianz Arena could have greeted a goal. Instead, it simply soundtracked the emergence of the German squad from the tunnel, 45 minutes before kick-off. Seconds later, it was the tourists’ turn in Munich, as the Scots welcomed their players onto the turf with a battle cry from behind one goal. Around the other three walls of this Bavarian behemoth of a structure, the crescendo of German whistles amounted to a fierce screech at Steve Clarke’s men.
These sounds, these swells of sincere excitement and stabs of pantomime hostility, had been absent from the opening games of major tournaments in recent years. There was no such ambience at the soulless World World Cup curtain-jerker in Qatar, two winters ago; there was no such passion in the half-filled stands of a Covid-crippled Rome, as Euro 2020 began 12 months late before playing out all around Europe; two summers earlier, Moscow could not offer the intensity felt in Munich here.
