Qatar kick-off in all maroon. Will playing in Hearts colours be a good omen for the visitors at the home of the Tynecastle side's Edinburgh rivals?

There is a trophy to play for tonight as well. The Qatar Airways Cup is up for grabs apparently.

Those who are at Easter Road give us a rousing rendition of Flower of Scotland. Maybe it is something about Edinburgh crowds as they always do better at Murrayfield too than at Hampden.

I don't know if that was just a poor version of the Qatar national anthem, or it was written by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Pro Clubs Shandy: "Prediction?­ Scotland 3-1 Ritchie to score 1st."

tom and 20 others: "I can see Scotland struggling in the heat. This fixture really should have been moved to winter."

Now for those national anthems. Not many in Easter Road to sing them though!

Here come the team. The fireworks are released around Easter Road.

The players are gathering in the tunnel. You can feel the anticipation....not!

Jose Daniel Carreno makes four changes from the side that drew with Northern Ireland. Abdul Karim Hassan and Ali Asadalla come into defence in place of Dame Traore and Hamid Ismail, while Karim Boudiaf and Hassan Al Haidous coming into midfield in place of Yasseen Ismail Musa and Majdi Siddiq.

It looks like it is going to be a poor crowd at Easter Road. Less than 15 minutes from kick-off and Hibernian's ground is showing rows of green empty seats.

Qatar: Lecomte, Abdelkarim Hassan, Kasola, Yasser, Asadalla, Hatem, Mohammed Abdullah, Boudiaf, Ahmed El Sayed, Muntari, Al Haidous.

Substitutes: Soufiane, Musa, Mukhtar, Siddiq, Muftah, Ismail, Abdulrahman Mohammed, Mohamed, Muayed Hassan, Ilyas, Mohammad, Traore, Mohamed El Sayed, Al Sheeb.

John Barnes
BBC Scotland at Easter Road

• This is the fifth friendly Scotland has hosted at Easter Road in last 13 years. They've won three of the previous four

• Scotland looking to make it three wins in a row this year after beating Northern Ireland and Gibraltar

• Scotland have won four of last five home matches.

• Scotland on a run of two defeats in 13

• Qatar unbeaten in three matches - all friendlies: Northern Ireland, Slovenia and Algeria

• Nine of Qatar squad play for Lehwiya, the Qatar League champions.

• Qatar preparing for World Cup qualifier against Maldives next week.

Image source, SNS

Qatar are coached by Jose Daniel Carreno, who has spent much of his managerial career in the Middle East, with fellow Uruguayan Max Viera, who has mainly coached in the United States, his assistant.

Viera has just told BBC Radio Scotland that they will respect their opponents because of Scotland's ranking and history but will be looking to put on a good performance ahead of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Tonight's master of ceremonies is Belgian referee Sebastien Delferiere.

Qatar this week moved up two places in the world rankings. Although they are still 69 places below the Scots in 97th spot, they managed a 1-1 draw with 44th-ranked Northern Ireland in Crewe on Sunday and recorded 1-0 victories over Algeria and Slovenia in their previous two outings.

Qatar will certainly not be viewing this as the extension of training promised by Scotland boss Gordon Strachan. The Middle Eastern side are looking to extend their unbeaten run to four games ahead of the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign against the Maldives later this month.

For Strachan, tonight's game offers the chance to return to his first footballing love: Hibernian's Easter Road.

The former Scotland midfielder grew up near the Edinburgh stadium and cheered on his boyhood heroes.

"It's fantastic that I can go back to where I started watching football as the Scotland manager," he said.

Image source, SNS

"It's a proud time being Scotland manager and going back there is fantastic. I'm sure a few of my relatives will be going to the game."

SFA chief executive Stewart Regan tweets:, external The pitch at Easter Road looking great @HibsOfficial #WeAreScotland