John McGinn in the form of his life and now dancing to the tune of Scotland

The first day is at Scotland’s headquarters, just east of Charlotte, and there’s Bullfit brewing – or to be more precise, angry Norwegians taking potshots at Steve Clarke, who, we can only assume, doesn’t care what the Norwegians think.

Norway head coach Stahl Solbakken and team manager Brad Hangeland have aired in the media about the practice match between the two countries’ reserve players, which was canceled by Clarke.

Who knew a pointless football match could cause such outrage.

His Scottish counterpart Solbakken trumpeted “unprofessionalism”. “Shameful” and “weak” knocks Hangeland.

At the palatial Charlotte base camp before the Scottish news conference, three Norwegian reporters set off in search of Scotland’s retaliatory thunder.

What they got was a great response from John McGinn, not only with the ball at his feet, but with the microphone in front of his face, which is pretty cool.

“I’d say 75% of the (Scotland) team didn’t see it,” he said with a smile about Norway’s upset.

“I see. Our job is to look after Scotland. Norway’s job is to look after Norway. And if they do their research, we’ve lost a very important part of the team (in Billy Gilmour) very close to this camp.”

“He had a big impact on everyone. We didn’t want to lose another one. We had a few niggles, not everyone was training.

“So I think it’s a professional way to handle things, to be absolutely honest and look number one. I’m sure every country does the same.

“If Norway wins one of the games before Saturday, Erling Haaland or Martin Odegaard will cancel the game.”