WITH the third game of Scotland’s vital Nations League triple-header taking place in Krakow on Tuesday, it was no surprise to see large sections of the Tartan Army making a long weekend of it.
Hundreds of kilted fans had made their way almost directly from Hampden, where Scotland beat the Republic of Ireland 2-1 on Saturday night, to the city in southern Poland, a place of architectural beauty, great food and great, cheap beer. Scotland’s opponents were, of course, not Poland, but rather Ukraine, currently playing their home matches in the city for obvious, tragic reasons.
How much of a “home” game this would be for Ukraine was therefore open to question. Somewhere between one and two million Ukrainian refugees are believed to be living in Poland, but every one of them could be forgiven for having weightier concerns than football on their minds just now. Men of military age – still a hefty segment of most football fanbases despite all the democratising the game has undergone in recent decades – are barred from leaving Ukraine and have been since late February.
