Captain Andrew Robertson admitted Scotland “got it all wrong” in the first half of the thumping 5-1 defeat to Germany in their Euro 2024 opener in Munich.
Steve Clarke’s side were three goals and one man down at the break, with efforts from Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala as well as a Kai Havertz penalty, which followed a red card for Ryan Porteous.
Substitutes Niclas Fullkrug and Emre Can struck after the break, either side of an Antonio Rudiger own goal, leaving Robertson to rue a “hugely disappointing” night.
“First half we got it all wrong,” he said on ITV.
“We didn’t show up, weren’t aggressive enough and let really good players on the ball.
A difficult evening in Munich, but your support tonight and over the last few weeks has been incredible – we don't take it for granted.
Thank you 💙#GERSCO | #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/tMnl4E3GU1
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 14, 2024
“They had a game plan and we did, but theirs worked a million times better than ours. It wasn’t because of the practice, but because we couldn’t put it together on the pitch.
“When big occasions come you have to do that and unfortunately we didn’t do that in the first half. Second half when we were down to 10 men I thought the lads did really well.
“We are well backed over here, we have so many supporters, but today was hugely disappointing.
“We were playing against the host nation in the first game, it doesn’t get more tough than that, but we have to bounce back quickly as there were a lot of things wrong and we have to sort it.
“They were excellent across the park and they made it really difficult for us and they had an answer for everything we had. I don’t think we’ve played to our maximum.
“We have to dust ourselves down and go again. We have five days until we play Switzerland, we need to be positive and go again.”