The verdict can be summed up in one word: “Terrible. “ For this England supporter who leaves Wembley Stadium in London, the 0-0 draw, conceded by his team against Scotland on Friday, June 18, was a defeat. “For me, it has the value of victory”, responds as an echo of a Scottish supporter. But above all, during ninety rather boring minutes in this group game of Euro 2021, football hardly came out grown. Gary Lineker, the BBC’s star commentator, could not help but handle the irony: “The tournament game so far. A real thriller. “
Fortunately, the show was elsewhere: in the stands of Wembley, the pubs and the streets of London. The “tartan army” descended en masse on the British capital, for Scotland’s first international competition in twenty-three years. In front of the stadium, a cloud of kilts mixed with the three lions of the English jerseys. On the one hand, Football is coming home (“Football is coming home”), the English anthem, bawled loudly. The other, The Tartan army boys, the Scottish anthem, howled even louder. On both sides, an impressive amount of beers. From one group to another, we call each other, make fun and it takes place in a good-natured atmosphere.
Symbolic match
It’s 6:30 p.m., the game starts in an hour and a half. This group of English supporters already have several hours of beer behind them. He starts a resounding God save the queen, under the placid gaze of the mounted policemen. A highly intoxicated Scottish supporter joins them, provocatively, but they all continue laughing loudly.
What about nationalist tensions, when half of the Scots now support independence? “These are journalist stories”, sweeps an English supporter. Andrew Burrell sports a hat with the Scottish Independence ‘Yes’ badge from the 2014 referendum, but he shares this opinion: “Football and politics have nothing to do with each other. “
It was almost 150 years ago, in 1872, that the two teams met for the first time on a football field. The match is symbolic, tense, full of history but the supporters experience it like a party.
“We haven’t stopped drinking for forty-eight hours”, say Simon, Craig and Stephen, who made the trip from Scotland. The day before, they went down to Hyde Park for a series of pints, despite the torrential rain. “I’m still soaked”, testifies one of them. “In the metro when we arrived here, we sang our songs, the English were on the benches opposite and sang on their side, and it was very good that way. “
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