Will Clark: Germany defeat should inspire Scotland to go on front foot in search of history at Euro 2024
Keep smiling. Those were the first words I said at full time on Friday night.
I was sitting in the National in Dingwall and knocked back the rest of my dram, comprehending what I had just witnessed in front of my eyes. Did I expect Scotland to lose? Yes. Did I think it would have been over as a contest as quickly as it was? Well, I was expecting some sort of resistance.
I have booked myself this week off on holiday to enjoy Scotland’s group stages at the Euros. The way things are going, I think might have had more fun visiting the KGB prison museum in Tallinn I went to the last time I was off.
That’s me not knocking it by the way, it is a fascinating museum.
As political editor Scott Maclennan was eyeing up the egg and bacon sandwich that was on offer at the front counter in the National, Florian Wirtz found the opener after just 10 minutes for Germany. Jamal Musiala then scored nine minutes later, and I was fearing a goal every 10 minutes.
I was fearing scenes reminiscent of Scotland losing 6-0 to Holland in the Euro 2004 play-off and losing 5-0 to France in a friendly in Paris in 2002.
Thankfully, we only conceded once more before half time, although losing Ryan Porteous to a red card as a result.
We found the net, albeit thanks to an own goal which sent the National Hotel into raptures of euphoric joy, but a 5-1 hiding doesn’t exude confidence for our chances of progression.
Some people think Friday night should have been treated as a joker card, but that would be an insult to the excellent qualification group that we had.
Beating Spain at Hampden, coming from behind to defeat Norway in Oslo – a team capable of results like those should never be hammered 5-1 by anybody. Was it stage fright? We had one shot in the entire game, and it was off target. We can’t claim the own goal as a shot.
Now Switzerland awaits on Wednesday night, and Hungary in the final game on Sunday. Realistically, we need four points from the final two games. Our goal difference has been shot to pieces, so I doubt three will be enough now to qualify.
Switzerland and Hungary won’t have the same dominance as Germany did over us – I hope at least, although both teams impressed me when they played each other on Saturday in the 3-1 win for Switzerland.
The Swiss seem to have a precision of knowing how to qualify from group stages of tournaments. Traditionally, they also know how to find the goal when required, but I remain confident Scotland can turn things around.
We can’t invite trouble like we did against the Germans.
I want to see Ryan Christie keep his place in the starting line-up. I would love to see Lawrence Shankland start up front. He has his critics playing for Scotland, but he is a man who knows how to find the net. I would like to see Billy Gilmour start instead of Callum McGregor and probably Scott McKenna in place of Ryan Porteous.
Let’s have a go at the Swiss, none of this counter attack nonsense, and set ourselves up for history against Hungary on Sunday.
We are all feeling a bit sorry for ourselves right now, and we shouldn’t forget what happened on Friday night, but hopefully we can use that as fuel to fire up Scotland to a big win on Wednesday.
