John Carver has hailed Germany for their "wonderful welcome" - but is ready to get down to the real business with the Euro 2024 opener against the hosts just four days away.
The ever-likeable John McGinn embraced the Bavarian culture last night as he joined in on a local dance following the Scotland teams arrival at their Garmisch-Partenkirchen training base.
Then today, they treated keen residents to an open session at Stadion am Groben, where hundreds appeared in miserable conditions to get a glimpse of the Scotland side in-action.
The spirits have been high between the Scots and Germans so far, although that will change significantly for 90 minutes when they face off at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday.
“It wasn’t a surprise that John was going to get up there,” said Carver.
“We got here yesterday and we got a wonderful welcome from the mayor and now we want to make an impact.
“We have seen a little bit of the culture last night which was excellent and John McGinn joined in the culture which was great.
“We had an open day today which was fantastic, in awful conditions for all the families and children to come. It was a great turnout and I hope they were impressed. We just want to thank them.
“It is very important that we embrace the community and we have certainly done that. It is a fantastic environment. We tried to make it feel as much like home as we can. That's why we brought the weather with us.
“Today was about the community and allowing people to see the players, for me the real work starts tomorrow where we can look at things, how we are going to play, set-plays, what have you. So the real work starts tomorrow.
“We have had a good preparation. We have had a couple of friendlies (Gibraltar and Finland) which were excellent in my opinion because we got out of it what we need to get out of it.
“Friday is when the real business starts and we have to make sure we are ready for that and I am sure we will be.
“Let’s not forget who we are playing against. We are playing against the host nation, who are a very good team and you can never underestimate them. So we have to get our preparation right and hopefully we can get something out of the game.”
The Tartan Army are expected to travel over to the tournament in their tens, if not hundreds of thousands - and it's something Carver says the players don't take for granted.
"I'm hearing there could be more than 200,000, that doesn't surprise me," Carver continued.
"They are so important to this team. The players understand that. I hope they enjoy themselves. I hope we give them something to cheer about."
