Euros: How Germany is planning for up to 30,000 Tartan Army fans to march on Cologne stadium

Up to 30,000 members of the Tartan Army are set to walk the 1.2 miles from the Technologie Park Train Station in Cologne to the championship stadium, led by a group of volunteer bagpipers and drummers.

Graeme Shinnie, an administrator for the Tartan Army Facebook group, said city roads would be officially closed for the event after negotiation between fan groups and German authorities.

"We've got a formal fan march to the stadium, where we've worked with the local police and the authorities who have closed the roads for us,” he said. “We could imagine there will be 20,000 or 30,000 Scottish people marching to the stadium just for the match build-up atmosphere, it will be amazing.

"It will be led by pipers from the front, so it will be a brilliant spectacle.”

James Scott, content creator for the Everything Scotland fan site, said the march would hopefully galvanise fans still reeling from a 5-1 defeat against Germany in Munich on Friday night.

"When we saw the march was going ahead, there was just an unspoken agreement in our group that we’d be doing that,” he said. “This will be so special. They’re not cutting any corners.

"The Dutch did something similar [on Sunday] before their game and looking at that, it was like ‘wow, that will be us on Wednesday’ – all the flags littering the crowd, the Saltires and the Lion Rampants. It will be a beautiful sight and hopefully the team follow that up with the game we deserve.”

The march, which is expected to take just under half an hour, will begin at 6.30pm, with roads closed for fans to gather from 4pm. The group is expected to reach the RheinEnergieStadion, home to FC Koln, by 7pm, ahead of kick-off at 9pm German time.

The meeting point is officially designated for ticket holders only, but it is expected more fans could join the march en-route.