Scotland Men's Football Team

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Scotland proved they can "bounce back from adversity" in Wednesday's well-earned Euro 2024 draw with Switzerland, says defender Jack Hendry.

Steve Clarke's side went into their second group game having come off the back of a 5-1 mauling by hosts Germany in the tournament opener.

But a hard-fought point in Cologne against the Swiss sends the Scots into Sunday's encounter with Hungary knowing a win would likely send them through to the knockouts of a major finals the first time.

"Hopefully we can continue this momentum now," Al-Ettifaq centre-back Hendry said. "It felt like we did ourselves justice last night. It shows how much we can bounce back from adversity.

"It was a very emotional evening. The fans were incredible. From the national anthem to the lap of honour at the end, they really pushed us on.

"We would've taken [this position]. We are more than determined to make history."

Hendry is wary of "top nation" Hungary, who are at the Euros "on merit".

Clarke confirmed he will be without Kieran Tierney for that must-win game after the Arsenal defender was stretchered off on Wednesday.

And while Hendry says his team-mate "will be a miss" in Stuttgart, he feels Scott McKenna's cameo highlights the squad's strength.

"There are ready-made replacements there if Kieran can't make the game," he said.

"One of our strengths is our squad. Scott [McKenna] came in and did extremely well."

Jack Hendry made his Scotland debut in a 1-0 win over Hungary and hopes to help his national team repeat the result at Euro 2024.

Nick McPheat
BBC Sport Scotland

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The big negative in a fairly positive evening for Scotland was the injury to Kieran Tierney in the 1-1 draw with Switzerland.

After being rolled by striker Dan Ndoye, the Arsenal defender, who spent last season loan at Real Sociedad, was stretchered off after suffering what looked like a serious muscle issue.

Despite the 27-year-old, who has been plagued by injury across the past year, then being able to walk down the tunnel, head coach Steve Clarke said "it looks pretty bad" and confirmed he would miss the must-win game with Hungary on Sunday.

A nation like Scotland losing a player of Tierney's calibre is always likely to have a significant impact, but his influence in Clarke's side is striking when you dissect their results with and without him.

Since Clarke's appointment in 2019, Tierney has played 35 games for his country, with 16 victories coming from those caps - a win percentage of 46%.

In the 22 games he has not featured in, that win rate drops to 41%.

Nine losses have come in the 35 caps he has earned under Clarke. The same number of defeats have come in the 22 matches he has missed.

Scotland also ship more goals when Tierney isn't in the team - a concession rate of 1.1 per game with him in the side jumps up to 1.7 without him.

Remarkably, in the 35 fixtures Tierney has played under Clarke, the defence have conceded just two more goals than the 37 they have lost in the 22 matches he has been absent for.

Scott McKenna replaced the former Celtic defender in Cologne on Wednesday and performed well during his half-hour cameo.

A similar impact will be required on Sunday if he is the man to fill the void left by an integral part of the Scotland side.

Scotland midfielder Callum McGregor says the team head into Sunday's all-or-nothing Euro 2024 game against Hungary with renewed belief after the battling 1-1 draw with Switzerland.

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter in Germany

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The build-up to the big game on Sunday is very much on.

For either Scotland or Hungary to have any hope of a place in the knockout stages, a win is essential.

So much so that Hungary head coach Marco Rossi wants his side to leave everything on the pitch in Stuttgart.

"Scotland is a team which has a lot of physical qualities that in some situations could make us suffer," Rossi said.

"I think what is important to do in the last match is putting on the pitch what our fans are always asking of us. They can accept technical mistakes. They are not stupid.

"They know what kind of level we have, especially compared to these kinds of opponents. But they want to see that, on the pitch - and sorry for these words - that we're spitting our blood.

"This is what I ask of the guys. I don't ask them to win. I don't ask them to score goals. I just ask them to put their maximum effort in. Of course, to be able to do this you must be well organised in a tactical aspect.

"Against Scotland we're expecting another kind of match and we will prepare the right tactics for that. But the most important thing is your maximum effort."

How about that for a rallying cry? Should be an absolute cracker on Sunday.

Midfielder Kenny McLean, who was a second-half substitute in the draw with Switzerland, insists there's more improvement to come from Scotland in Sunday's "huge" meeting with Hungary where qualification is on the line.

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Angus Gunn says Scotland showed what they are "all about" in Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Switzerland.

The result keeps Scotland's hopes of progression alive, and the Norwich City keeper was pleased to bounce back from a disappointing performance in the tournament opener against Germany.

"Everything in the game from the start was 10 times better from the game on Friday night [the 5-1 loss to Germany] - our intensity, pressing the ball, our aggression, winning the ball high up," Gunn said.

"That really set us off at the start of the game. The lads managed to keep it going for 90 minutes.

"Getting the goal in the first half was good. I thought it was a pretty even second half and probably could've gone either way. We'll take it to the last game in the end.

"Personally, I was hurting after the game on Friday night, didn't feel like I had done myself justice. A lot of the boys in the dressing room felt like that as well.

"That was the motivation for - to come out, show what we're all about and I think everyone to a man did that today."

Midfielder Billy Gilmour, who impressed on his return to the team, added: "We gave everything out there.

"We knew we had to bounce back after the last performance and it puts us in a good place.

"We're a good team. We know our strengths. Tonight was more like a Scotland performance. Getting after the ball, passionate - everything was there."

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Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin

A lot of pride back. After the Germany game a lot of people would’ve watched that, who hadn’t watched Scotland before and thought, they’re out of their league.

I don’t think that’s the case because Scotland have shown time and again that they're capable of doing better.

I walk away from that game and I’m happy. Minor disappointment that we didn’t get the win but actually did we deserve the win? No, I’m not that biased.

Former Scotland forward James McFadden

A much better performance, straight from the off, you could see the intent to go and press and try and put Switzerland under as much pressure as they could and crucially we got the first goal and gave ourselves a real belief.

It’s so unlike Scotland to perform the way they did against Germany.

So I think they did pretty well, we are being greedy by saying we would’ve loved to have won the game but the most important part was being in it and still having a chance to qualify and that’s what they’ve given themselves.

Ex-Scotland midfielder Charlie Adam

There were a lot of good moments and a lot of things we need to improve on defensively. I know people make mistakes but small details, if you want to play at the top level of football, you get punished for mistakes and that’s what happened.

Overall from a performance and our reaction was very, very good. It gives us an opportunity on Sunday against a very good Hungarian team. Ranked 26th in the world, they are not to be messed with.

Scotland women's captain Rachel Corsie

It's a good place to be, it's where you want to be.

I think the performance, emotionally and mentally, will count for a lot. We have a real solid group of players, and a structured system.

We'll give it a real go against Hungary and the fans will get right behind them.

Scotland midfielder Callum McGregor and captain Andy Robertson have praised "big character" Anthony Ralston’s "unbelievable" response to being at fault for Switzerland’s equaliser.

Right-back Ralston’s slack backpass was pounced upon by Xherdan Shaqiri to lash a fabulous strike into the top corner shortly after Scott McTominay’s first-half opener in the pulsating 1-1 draw.

Celtic skipper McGregor, who provided the assist for McTominay’s goal, said of his 25-year-old clubmate Ralston: "Big, big character and still a young player as well.

"He hasn’t played a huge amount of football either and to get thrown into that top-level football, he deals with it really well.

"He’s such an honest boy. Listen, that can happen to anybody. People make mistakes, people give the ball away. Sometimes it’s a night when you get punished and sometimes you don’t get punished.

"That’s one that did get punished but to come back and show that level of performance and calmness for a young player speaks volumes for him."

Ralston also received backing from Robertson, who said: "Tony was unbelievable after that mistake.

"Not many people could come back from that. It was a difficult one for him but second half he was a different class."

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Former Scotland forward James McFadden will opt for a close shave on Sunday before cheering on Scotland against Hungary.

Read Faddy's column on why Scotland deserve chance at a grandstand finish

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Scotland defender Kieran Tierney will miss the must-win Hungary game on Sunday after being taken off on a stretcher in the second half of the 1-1 draw with Switzerland.

Tierney - a key player for Clarke's side - pulled up with what appeared to be a hamstring injury challenging Dan Ndoye, who fired inches wide.

"Definitely out," head coach Clarke said. "It looks pretty bad. We have to assess it but Kieran won't make the next game.

"He's a top player for us. Does ever so well. It's a shame but someone else has got to step in and step up to the mark."

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• Scotland have gained their first result in a European Championship game in which they’ve conceded, having lost their previous six such matches when shipping a goal, while they’ve ended a run of two consecutive defeats at the Euros since their 0-0 draw against England in June 2021.

• Xherdan Shaqiri has become the only European player to score in each of the last six major tournaments (World Cup/Euros) since the 2014 World Cup, while he’s netted in twice as many such competitions as any other Swiss player.

• Scotland remain unbeaten against Switzerland at major tournaments (W1 D1), avoiding defeat in six of their last seven competitive matches against them (W2 D4 L1), while 44% of their group stage points (4/9) at the European Championship have come against the Swiss (W1 D1).

• Scott McTominay has scored nine goals for Scotland under Steve Clarke, with only John McGinn (18) netting more, while his eight goals since the start of Euro 2024 qualifying in March 2023 is more than twice as many as any other Scotland player.

• Switzerland named their oldest ever starting XI in a European Championship game (30y 119d), while only Slovakia have named an older XI so far at Euro 2024 (30y 229d).

Scotland wrestled free from the shackles of injury and self destruction to muster a precious point against Switzerland to keep their Euro 2024 campaign alive.

Qualification hero Scott McTominay's deflected shot almost lifted the roof off the deafening Cologne Stadium on 13 minutes.

However, a bewildering blind back pass from Anthony Ralston gift-wrapped an opportunity for Xherdan Shaqiri to sweep home a sublime first-time shot high beyond Angus Gunn.

Kieran Tierney pulled up clutching his hamstring as Dan Ndoye ran on to squander a golden chance when through on goal and will miss the Hungary game on Sunday.

But the Scots, already patched up in defence, roused themselves heroically in the closing stages which saw Grant Hanley strike a post with a header from an Andy Robertson free-kick.

The Swiss spurned a host of late chances, but not enough to deny Scotland a point to move third in Group A, with victory against the Hungarians surely enough to see them out of a group stage for the first time in their history.

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Scotland captain Andy Robertson said after the 1-1 draw with Switzerland: "More like us, much more like us. Aggressive, on the front foot, couldn't get off to a better start.

"We make a mistake but make no mistake about it, Tony Ralston was unbelievable after that mistake. Second half, he was different class.

"We had our chances but so did they. We were a lot more happy with that performance. We'll take the draw and we've taken it into the last game and that's all we can ask.

"We need to go again Sunday because that's a massive game for us now. We can take a lot of positives from tonight but we can also tweak a little thing and improve even more and that's a good thing.

"We need to get to bed now and recover. Come Sunday we'll bee good to go with the backing that we've got."