Steve Clarke insisted the real Scotland must show up at the European Championship after a 5-1 humbling to hosts Germany in Friday’s opening game for Norwich City’s Tartan Army trio.
Angus Gunn, Grant Hanley and Kenny McLean all finished the one-sided rout in Munich as Scotland crashed to their heaviest tournament defeat since 1954.
Germany’s ruthlessness compounded an error-strewn Scotland display that leaves Clarke’s side on the back foot already, with games against Switzerland and Hungary to come.
“We need four points from the next two games and that’s what we focus on,” he said. “I have never doubted my players. It was a difficult night and we didn’t play to our standard. Germany were excellent and we couldn’t get a foothold in the game.
“The players were disappointed, they felt they let themselves down, they are a better team than that and hopefully we can show that in the next two games.
“This was always going to be a tough night for us to get something. The game ran away from us very quickly, obviously we conceded a third and with the sending off as well it was always going to be a difficult night and after that it was damage limitation.
“In the second half the boys gave everything they could to keep the scoreline reasonable but we have to move on.”
Scotland captain Andy Robertson admitted a limp first half display was unacceptable.
“First half we got it all wrong,” he said in his post-match television interview. “We didn’t show up, weren’t aggressive enough and let really good players on the ball.
“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.”
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