Brickwork done and concrete evidence we're back on track

Win on road proves we've finally risen from ruins of Euros

- SCOTT MCDERMOTT

JUST a mile up the road from Scotland’s team base in Warsaw there is a construction site.

It’s where the city’s Saxon Palace once stood.

One of the country’s landmarks, it was completely wrecked and ruined by German forces in 1944 during World War II.

Now, the rubble is surrounded by a grey, iron fence. And across the length of one side, words are written in English and Polish bold letters, then lit up at night.

It reads: “Together we are rebuilding what should not have been destroyed.”

In 2022, Poland decided the Palace would be restored to its former glory, with it due to be finished by 2030.

The Scottish players might have walked past it on their daily pre-match stroll from the Intercontinental Hotel.

Certainly, if any Tartan Army foot soldiers clocked it, they must have immediately thought about Steve Clarke’s side. After all, this Scotland team is also in the midst of a rebuilding job.

And Germany was involved in the destruction of that as well. At Euro 2024 over the summer, it felt like everything Clarke had built with these players was in danger of being demolished.

The momentum which had been gathered in qualifying. The confidence – maybe even arrogance – of his squad was evident when giving Spain a bloody nose at Hampden.