Why are Scotland playing Ivory Coast in Liverpool?

There is also a bit of symmetry about Tuesday’s first-ever meeting between these two sides.

Ivory Coast, at 35th, are five places above Scotland in the world rankings and are returning to the World Cup finals for the first time in 12 years.

With a 52,600 capacity, Hill Dickinson Stadium is just above Hampden’s 51,866.

Considering the distances involved for both sets of fans, will the attendance get close to that, or even the average of about 24,000 Ivory Coast usually attract to their games at the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium?

Scotland are no strangers to playing in neutral venues, recently facing Gibraltar in Portugal, Ukraine in Poland and, in September, beating Belarus 2-0 in Hungary in a World Cup qualifier also switched because of Russia’s invasion.

However, the most famous might be the 1977 win over Wales.

Because of capacity restrictions and safety concerns at other grounds, the match was moved to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium – Wales’ first home match held outside the country since 1890.

An infamous handball by Joe Jordan won Scotland a controversial penalty, with Don Masson slotting home the opener before Kenny Dalglish’s late strike settled the tie to send Scotland to the finals in Argentina instead of their heartbroken hosts.