Craig Lang

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿⚽️SCOTLAND NATIONAL TEAM ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (4 mins reading time) - EURO 2024 TRAVEL POST 💯 Scotland have all but qualified for Euro 2024 in Germany🇩🇪, as we head to Cyprus tonight 🫣 It would take a monumental collapse now to not finish in the top 2 and qualify automatically 🤓 The spreadsheet predictor nerds (not me, a different nerd) have it at a 96% chance of qualification 🔟 This is thanks to Scotland being class again, and now on a run of 10 qualifying wins in a row, with 8 clean sheets! Remarkable! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 If results go our way we can actually qualify during the England friendly at Hampden on Tuesday (retweet my pinned post for a chance to win limited edition memorabilia) ✈️ I've created this travel post to offer advice on how to book your travel and accommodation NOW, before the draw is made (if you've not already) 💁‍♂️ The following is advice if you want to have something sorted pre draw, to try and avoid the post draw price and availability carnage once everyone in Europe knows exactly where their fixtures are 🆓 I would recommend trying to book with free cancellation or free changes so that you can try and change it post draw if you wish 📅 The Euros draw is on Sat 2nd December at 5pm 6⃣ There are 6 groups of 4 teams 🗓️ The group stage runs from Fri 14th June to Wed 26th June (13 days) 🚂Train network in Germany is fantastic and there will be a lot of free & subsidised train travel during the tournament 🇩🇪 Therefore you can fly to anywhere in Germany and still make it work 1⃣ Germany as hosts are team A1, and play in the only game on Friday 14th June 3⃣ There are 3 opening group games on each of the Saturday, Sunday & Monday and 2 on Tuesday 🧮 Therefore there is a 16/23 chance that Scotland's first game will be Sunday afternoon onwards SO ✈️FLIGHTS✈️ 🇩🇪 If you are going to Germany for a long time and want to guarantee you get Scotland's first game🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿, then fly no later than Friday 14th June e.g. Edi-Munich🇩🇪 06:25am (via London), as there is a 1 in 23 chance Scotland will be drawn as team A2 & will open the tournament against Germany in Munich HOWEVER 💰 If you are more restricted by annual leave/cash, and don't want to be there for too many excess days when we're not playing (i.e. if you fly Friday there is a chance Scotland's first game won't be until 4 days later on the Tuesday night): ✈️ Then you could fly no later than Sat morning e.g. 6am Edi to Berlin🇩🇪 via Amsterdam or 7am flights from London to Frankfurt/Cologne/Stuttgart🇩🇪, in case Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 are in one of the 3 Saturday fixtures. (London🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 will be cheaper but you need to factor in night before travel down) ✈️ I think the best time and cost efficient gamble is to fly the Sunday morning e.g. 6am Edi-Frankfurt🇩🇪 🧮 As mentioned there's a 16 in 23 chance that this flight will be good enough to get you there for Scotland's first game on either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday (including travelling direct to the city on Sunday morning if we are one of the 3 Sunday games) ✈️ Airlines such as Lufthansa offer option to upgrade when booking to include ability to cancel or change your flight 🏨ACCOMODATION🏨 🚂Train network is superb, so choosing a base city in advance and travelling to each of the 3 games from that base is definitely doable 📈 To try and avoid post draw price hikes, you could book SIX BASE CITY hotels now with free cancellation, that you don't have to pay until arrival (e.g. on booking. com) 🆓 Therefore it costs you £0 and once the draw is done, you can CANCEL 5 of your bases for free and stick with the one that best suits the group we're in 🔭 I have looked at each of the 6 groups and chosen a base that is reasonable train travel to each city, no matter which of the 4 teams we are drawn as 📅 There's either 8 or 9 days between Scotland's game 1 and game 3 and all groups start and end on different dates, so 'dates to stay' reflect this - (based on staying from night before game 1 until day after game 3) --------- 🎩 Once the draw is done you can then look at staying in different cities or flying on dates that perfectly fits our fixtures 🔙 However, having a free cancellation base suitable for each of the 6 groups means that no matter the draw in December, you will have some kind of backup plan sorted 🎰 As an aside, ideally Scotland is drawn as any of team A3, A4, C3, D3, E2, F1, F4 - as these teams all have 2 games in same city and so less moving around during the group stage --------- 🏆 If you can't be arsed with the diddy group stage as you know that Scotland will definitely progress out the group. ✅ Well you're right, so here's what you need to know for the last 16: 2⃣ The top 2 and 4 (out of 6) best 3rd place teams go through to last 16 📅 Last 16 games are Sat 29th June to Tues 2nd July with each team getting at least 4 days between group stage game 3 to last 16 tie 🏆 Tournament concludes from the quarters starting on 5th July and culminating in the final in Munich at 8pm on Sunday 14th July ☕️ If you like the work that I do and would like to buy me a coffee to say thanks, then please do! https://t.co/RVcn9D1Xuy 🔁Retweets and follows appreciated 🤝