Scotland reaction: Clarke's pointed message, Gilmour omission explained and lid lifted on MacPhee incident

The fear is that their qualification hopes have already been torpedoed by a 5-1 defeat in the opening game of Euro 2024 at the Munich Football Arena. Certainly, the team's confidence has likely taken a very heavy dent.  

The Scots, who had Ryan Porteous sent off near the end of the first half, were never in the contest. Now Clarke wants his side to show they are better than what they suggested in Munich in the final two two Group A games, against Switzerland and Hungary.  

“It was obviously a difficult night,” he said. “We didn’t play to our standards while I thought the German team were excellent.

“The mood afterwards was one of disappointment. We’re better than that, we’re 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.  We now need four points from our next two games and that’s what we’ll focus on.”

Clarke was short and sharp with his answers afterwards but did not hide from the disappointment. This was a long way from what the 200,000 fans who flooded into Munich had expected. “Have faith,” the manager told them. “We will see you at the next game.” 

But first it will be necessary to pick over the bones of this brutal evening. After one wasted free-kick Clarke was spotted having an angry exchange with his set piece coach Austin MacPhee, although the manager played this down afterwards. “We are fine,” he said.  “It’s emotional on the touchline.”

He addressed what he agreed was a difficult decision to leave out Billy Gilmour from the starting XI. “It would be difficult to leave anyone out of the starting line-up. 

“I thought Germany and we couldn’t get a foothold in the game. I’m not too sure if it would have made any difference. We will find out.”

Gilmour did make an appearance in the second half and Clarke seemed to suggest he would return to the starting line-up in midweek. “We will go away and analyse the game as we always do and work on Switzerland and the shape of the team,” he said. 

It could have been worse for Scotland as a historic night turned into one they will want to forget. Clarke's side never got going. They were 3-0 down by half-time, with Kai Havertz converting the penalty awarded after Porteous’ rash challenge on Ilkay Gundogan. The Watford defender was shown a straight red card. 

“The game ran away from us very quickly,” acknowledged Clarke. “By conceding the third and obviously getting the sending off as well, it was always going to make it a difficult night after that. It was then about damage limitation and seeing what we could get.

“In the second half I thought the boys gave everything they could. They worked ever so hard to try to keep the scoreline reasonable. But we have to move on from this quickly.”

“In the next two matches we have to be more competitive. We’ll go away and analyse the game like we always do ….”

Clarke took some crumbs of comfort from a statistic he had been told about Germany’s xG being lower than two. “That shows you how clinical they were,” he said.