Andy Murray rates Scotland’s Euro chances & reveals where he’ll watch the games

ANDY MURRAY reckons Steve Clarke’s Scotland can “surprise” their Euros 2024 opponents.

The competition opens on Friday evening with Scotland taking on hosts Germany at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

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Boss Steve Clarke is tasked with trying to qualify Scotland for the knockout stages of a major football tournament for the first time.

We finished bottom of Group D at the Euros three years ago but did manage to draw 0-0 with England at Wembley.

And Glasgow-born, Dunblane-raised Murray has revealed that he will be watching the group matches against Germany, Switzerland and Hungary alongside English pals at the Queen’s Club players’ lounge in London.

The former tennis world No.1 said: “They don’t necessarily have the biggest names.

“But they have got a lot of players who are playing at the highest level in the Premier League.

“Provided they play well together as a team, there’s a good chance of them getting out of the group – and hopefully they can surprise a few people.

“They have solid players. It will be interesting to see what happens.

“I will definitely try to watch the games when I can.

“It is always nice around Queen’s time when you are home, having a big football competition on.

“All of the players are watching in the players’ lounges, getting right into it.

“Scotland haven’t been in too many tournaments over the years.

“We tend to take a bit of stick for that. Hopefully they can do well.”

Murray, 37, received enormous criticism in the early part of his career the last time a major football event was staged in Germany.

Before the 2006 World Cup finals, he made a harmless jibe that, as a proud Scot, he would support “anyone but England”.

He also joked that he would even wear a Paraguay shirt – England’s opening group opponents that summer – but he never actually did that.

For many years, he received hate and stick for those off-hand comments and it affected his relationship with some fans at Wimbledon.

Times are completely different now and Murray has lived in England for many years – he resides in Surrey with wife Kim and their four children.

And under boss Gareth Southgate, this English squad are good enough to win the continental crown.

Asked which countries he thinks might make the final on July 14 in Berlin, Murray replied: “If I had to pick teams to be in the final, I’d probably go with France and England.”

Go Ballistic – SunSport’s new podcast

SUNSPORT is going Ballistic with the launch of our brilliant new podcast.

Every day of the Euros host Roger Hannah will bring you all the latest news and views from the Scotland camp in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

He will be joined by our men in Germany – Bill Leckie, Robert Grieve and Derek McGregor.

And there will also be special guest appearances from our Euro 2024 columnist Gordon Strachan, regular columnist Kris Boyd and bookie basher Jim Delahunt.

You can watch every episode on our website or our brand new YouTube channel.

What are you waiting for, it’s time to Go Ballistic!

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