Why are Scotland playing Ivory Coast in Liverpool?
There is also some symmetry between these two sides in the first meeting on Tuesday.
Ivory Coast sits 35th in the world rankings, five places above Scotland, and is returning to the World Cup finals for the first time in 12 years.
With a capacity of 52,600, Hill Dickinson Stadium is just above Hampden’s capacity of 51,866.
Given the distances of both sets of fans, will attendances come close to that, or will matches at the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium attract an average of 24,000 Ivory Coast spectators?
Scotland are no strangers to playing on neutral grounds; The recent World Cup qualifiers against Gibraltar in Portugal, Ukraine in Poland and the 2-0 win over Belarus in Hungary in September have also changed due to the Russian invasion.
But the most famous might be the win against Wales in 1977.
Due to capacity restrictions and safety concerns at other venues, the match was moved to Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium, Wales’ first home match held outside the country since 1890.
Joe Jordan’s infamous handball earned Scotland a controversial penalty; Don Masson scored the first goal before Kenny Dalglish’s late strike resolved the tie and sent Scotland to the finals in Argentina in place of their heartbroken hosts.
