So Scotland’s Euro 2024 campaign peaked before the football began. While the Scottish hordes endeared themselves in Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart, the Scottish team laboured and floundered: wretched against Germany, industrious against Switzerland, impotent against Hungary. There was a hard-luck story in the penalty that wasn’t but it is hard to claim a side with three shots on target in the entire group and two goals – one a bizarre own goal, another a deflection – ought to progress.
Which leaves the images of John McGinn’s attempts at Bavarian country dancing as the moment that seemed to sum up much that is right about his country: no Scotland, no party, and if the party involves three knee-slapping locals in distinctly unusual hats, then McGinn was going to join in.
