Scots swarm Munich for Euro 2024, fan zones overwhelmed

A few hours before the opening match of Euro 2024, the Scots took over the streets of Munich. So many Tartan Army—as Scottish soccer fans are called—came to Germany that the police declared overcrowded fan zones.

Although the opening match of Euro 2024 did not give the Scots any reason to celebrate, a few hours before it, they showed how fans know how to have fun. According to Mark Dittmer-Odell, the British consul in Munich, half a million fans from the United Kingdom are heading to Germany for the tournament, of which 200,000 are Scots.

15,000 of them were supposed to gather on Friday at Marienplatz in the center of Munich. At 9:00 AM ET, the police decided that the fan zone was overcrowded. They appealed for some people to leave, and others were not allowed into the area.

The area at Olympiapark was also overcrowded, where 30,000 soccer fans had gathered in front of the big screens.

The Scots also took over German bars. In social media recordings, you can see how they unashamedly have fun literally "to the point of exhaustion". Their preparations for the match were, of course, accompanied by traditional kilts and bagpipe music.

Scottish fans are called the Tartan Army, after the fabric from which kilts are made. The Tartan Army is known for its friendly attitude towards fans of other countries except England.

On Friday at 3:00 PM ET, the Scots faced Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024. The first match was not fortunate for them, as they were trounced by the hosts 5-1. It was the first of 51 games in the event, which dates back to 1958.