Scotland Men's Football Team

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Callum McGregor has apologised to Scotland fans for the 5-1 humbling by Germany that left the midfielder and the rest of squad waking up "with a sour taste in your mouth" the day after what turned out to be his won unhappy 31st birthday.

The Celtic captain was the player left to face the music at Scotland's Saturday media conference after a Euro 2024 opener he reckons "will probably take a couple of days to get over".

"I think the disappointing aspect is the way it happens - the performance," he said.

"They are a good side, they are a top team, they will probably be in around being winners, but I think the sorest thing is that, when you open the tournament, you have such high expectation and we don't deliver as a group.

"You have a sour taste in your mouth this morning because we don't do ourselves justice. We have to apologise to the fans for not putting on a performance they will have been proud of."

McGregor was asked if head coach Steve Clarke or the players had come to any conclusions about what went wrong against the hosts in Munich.

"We've not spoken as a group yet - it is probably too soon for that," he said. "Everybody will be internally processing it and trying to figure out why."

However, McGregor did offer some of his own analysis.

"When you play against top teams and give them too much space then they are going to hurt you," he added.

"When you play against top players, you have to make them uncomfortable and we didn't do that. We didn't get close enough to them.

"After the first goal, you could see the confidence and they can hurt you. We probably didn't manage the game as well as what we should have."

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Andy Robertson insists Scotland will "bounce back quickly" from their 5-1 defeat to Germany.

The Scots face Switzerland in their second group game on Wednesday.

"First half [against Germany] we got it all wrong really," he said.

"We didn't really show up and their game-plan worked a million times better than ours did.

"Second half down to 10, I thought we dug-in really well. We're well-backed here, we've got so many supporters and yet today was hugely disappointing.

"We have to bounce back quickly because there were a lot of things that were wrong and we have to sort it before Wednesday."

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Scotland defender Jack Hendry is hoping Scotland will "give a better account of themselves" in their upcoming Euro 2024 games.

Steve Clarke's side opened the tournament with a 5-1 defeat to hosts Germany on Friday night.

They face Switzerland and Hungary in their remaining group games.

"Obviously it's an extremely disappointing result and probably the manner that it came about," Hendry said.

"Now we've got to focus on the games coming up. Anything is possible, you can't get too downbeat. Germany are a very good team. We have got to dust ourselves down and move forward.

"We'll analyse what went wrong when we get back to base camp and try and make sure that doesn't happen in the next two games.

"I don't think we can be too critical on ourselves given that we've got two games remaining.

"As footballers you always analyse games so for us now it's extremely important we get to the bottom of how that result came about.

"We'll learn from it and hopefully give a better account of ourselves in the next game."

Leanne Crichton
BBC Radio Scotland

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You would like to think Scotland will have more of the ball in the Switzerland and Hungary games than they had tonight.

Gilmour is a ball player and he's got the vision.

For me, Billy Gilmour would be in the XI for the Switzerland game.

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Scotland manager Steve Clarke tells ITV: "Germany were outstanding and we couldn’t match them.

"The first half ran way from us very quickly, we didn’t give ourselves a foothold.

"Defensively, we weren’t very good and on the ball we weren’t very good so we gave ourselves a difficult night.

"I thought in the second half the ten men were manful, managed to nick goal, we’re disappointed to lose the fifth.

"What we need to do is still in front of us. Now it’s all about reaction so let’s see how they react.

"Four points is the target. I said that from the start. We didn’t get any tonight so it’s still the target from the next two games."

Steven Thompson
BBC Sport Scotland

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I don't think Steve Clarke will change the goalkeeper. I think that's too big a call.

It's not Angus Gunn's best match by a long stretch and I do think there will be changes for the next game but I don't think the keeper will be one of them.

Leanne Crichton
BBC Sport Scotland

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The lesson for me is that this result is coming in game one.

The opportunity is still there to get four points. The reality is, park this game. There's nothing you'll take from hanging onto it.

Switzerland and Hungary will be completely different opponents to this game. Germany had everything in their favour tonight.

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• Germany enjoyed the biggest win by a host nation in an opening Euros match and their biggest victory in the finals

• Scotland failed to have a single shot on target. It was the first time they have done so in a tournament since Euro 1992 against the Netherlands.

• At the age of 21 years and 42 days, Florian Wirtz became the youngest player to score for Germany at the European Championship, and the youngest player to score the opening goal of a Euros.

• In Wirtz (21 years, 42 days) and Jamal Musiala (21 years, 109 days), Germany were the first nation in European Championship history to have two players aged 21 or younger score in the same match.

• Scotland have suffered their heaviest defeat at a tournament since losing 7-0 to Uruguay at the 1954 World Cup.

• They conceded five goals in a match for the first time since a friendly against the United States in May 2012 (1-5), and first in a competitive match since November 2003 in a European Championship qualifier against Netherlands (0-6).

• Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made his 35th appearance at a major international tournament, equalling the record by a European goalkeeper, with Hugo Lloris also playing 35 games combined for France.

• Scotland defender Ryan Porteous became the second Scottish player sent off at a major tournament, along with Craig Burley in the 1998 World Cup against Morocco.

It was a dismal start to Scotland's Euro campaign on Friday night and we want to know what you made of the performance.

Did Steve Clarke get the tactics wrong? What did you make of Ryan Porteous' challenge? What changes do you want to see for the game against Switzerland?

Give us your thoughts here, external.

Chris Sutton
BBC Radio 5Live

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In a game where the Scotland players had to play above expectation and be near-perfect, I have got to say I was really disappointed.

I thought Angus Gunn should have done better with the first goal...that was a bit of a gift. But Scotland were not brave enough for me.

We saw in the qualifying stage against Spain that they can play, they can be brave. But it was like an had an inferiority complex. All the players were below-par and that is the worry for me.

They need to recover but can they recover because that performance by Germany knocked the stuffing out of Scotland.