Scotland’s captain and Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson gave a direct assessment of his side’s performance after they were soundly defeated by Germany in the opening match of Euro 2024 in Munich.
After Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala’s goals put Scotland ahead by two goals, Kai Havertz scored three goals from the penalty spot after Ryan Porteous was sent off. In the second half, substitute Niclas Fullkrug ensured a 4-0 triumph. An own goal from Antonio Rudiger offered some solace, and former Liverpool midfielder Emre Can brought an incredible evening for the visiting country to an end.
“We were completely inept and failed to demonstrate our presence in the first half,” Robertson said in the ITV Sport post-match interview. It was left to competent sportsmen to handle the ball. Their plan turned out to be far more successful than ours. The practice was not the cause. It was because we couldn’t get it put together. It is necessary that you take action when important things happen.
When they were down to ten men in the second half, the players showed incredible resilience. It is scant consolation if we draw the second half and let up a thoughtless goal. We know we have a lot of support. Despite the fact that we have many people who are supporting, today was a major letdown. The first game is against the host country, but we have to get better quickly. There were a lot of mistakes today, and we need to fix them so that we can move quickly till Tuesday.
“Perhaps it acts as a reminder of how tough the tournament is.” The last time was a quite different event. You are up against some of the best organisations this time. They proved that today. These are important characters that came and caused us serious problems. Almost everything we did was accompanied by an explanation from them. This happens from time to time, but our performance was not at its finest. After we have five days to work out our disagreements, we will take on Switzerland in another difficult test. We are going to be disappointed tomorrow, and we have to come back on Sunday.
Due to the tournament’s enlargement, Scotland might yet be able to move up from its division. As up to three teams from each group move on to the elimination round, even one win can be enough. Tomorrow, Scotland will play Switzerland and Hungary. Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai is Hungary’s star man while Xherdan Shaqiri, still only 32 and now playing in MLS, is in the Swiss team.
