Euro 2024 got underway on Friday night as tournament hosts Germany took on Scotland in Munich.
Thousands of Scots had travelled to support their side in Bavaria, hoping to see a team — who have never previously progressed out of a group at an international tournament — record a famous result.
Instead Germany taught them a footballing lesson, Julian Nagelsmann’s side 3-0 up at half-time and a man to the good after Ryan Porteous was sent off for a horror tackle on Ilkay Gundogan.
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The second half was not quite as nightmarish for Steve Clarke’s side — they did concede again via a thumping effort from Niclas Füllkrug and an injury time goal from Emre Can, but an Antonio Rudiger own goal gave the Scottish fans at least a modicum of joy from a tough evening.
Here, our writers break down some of the key moments from the game.
How good were Musiala and Wirtz?
The future is now. With Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala (above) scoring the first two goals of Euro 2024, Germany became the first side in European Championship history to have two players aged 21 or under score for them in the same game. It felt like a statement of intent for the rest of the tournament — and maybe the next few years.
GO DEEPER
My game in my words. By Jamal Musiala
Wirtz’s opener was ruined aesthetically by poor goalkeeping, but in receiving the ball on the edge of the box from a clever Joshua Kimmich cut-back, he was taking up the positions Julian Nagelsmann wants, and continuing his fine form from his Bundesliga-winning campaign with Leverkusen, in which he hit 11 league goals. Musiala’s slammed second shows he doesn’t merely illuminate games these days, he helps to decide them.
There have been fears — which, granted, might prove prescient against stronger opposition than Scotland provided — that Wirtz and Musiala might not offer enough width to break down defences, and that they might operate in the same zones. But if anything, they thrived in those situations.
Note, for example, the fact Musiala drifted across from the right to the left in the lead-up to the penalty incident for the third goal, finding himself close to Wirtz. Some managers hate that sort of thing; Nagelsmann is fine with it. On this evidence, the more freedom these two have, the more dangerous Germany will be.
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The Radar - The Athletic's 50 players to watch at Euro 2024
Michael Cox
Why did Scotland start so badly?
There’s bad first halves, then there’s that. Defensively, Scotland were fairly watertight for 20 minutes. The 5-4-1 was compact, the defensive line was high and they were busy on Germany’s central midfielders. But Billy Gilmour and Lawrence Shankland were surprise absences, and it showed in Scotland’s transition behaviours. They are not the most ball dominant side and can be direct but, at their best, Scotland like to play.
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They kept launching passes upfield, which didn’t stick to Che Adams (eight out of 23 long passes completed), and failed to sustain possession to take the sting out. In addition, Scotland tried to transition out of the right-side too much, failing to get their better creators (Kieran Tierney, left centre-back, and Andrew Robertson, left wing-back) on the ball.
Germany ended up wearing them down with passes, as eventually No 10 Ilkay Gundogan found space between the lines, which led to the second goal and then a penalty which VAR overturned. Okay, Germany scored with their first two shots, but Scotland failed to turn up with the ball.
Liam Tharme
Did UEFA see Ryan Porteous’ tackle coming?
The Wednesday night before the tournament began, Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s head of refereeing, gave a presentation in which he outlined what some of the officiating focus would be — player safety and punishing tackles like the one made by Ryan Porteous was among them.
Rosetti was very clear: player safety would be paramount. He also stressed that making contact with the ball was not a justification for whatever followed next. Meaning that dangerous contact, particularly with a straight, high leg, and in a way that put an opponent in danger, would be punished with a red card. The way to think of this, for Euro 2024 at least, is as two separate moments. The challenge for the ball and then the contact that results; they will be viewed independently.
The players know this. They were shown exactly the same presentation before the tournament, as were the coaches. So Clement Turpin was absolutely right in his decision. Porteous was unfortunate, because there was no intent to hurt Gundogan and he was simply reacting naturally to a desperate situation in front of his own goal. Nevertheless, the burden of responsibility still lies with the tackling player and that is the case irrespective of the situation.
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Porteous will be haunted by a red card in arguably the biggest game of his career. He wasn’t sent off with Championship side Watford last season, but 15 yellow cards certainly hints at an approach that at least flirts with aggression.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
Toni Kroos is very good (please don’t retire)
Death, taxes, and Toni Kroos putting on a passing clinic at the highest level.
Some things in life are inevitable, and Germany’s No 8 looks set to ensure that he bows out of football with performances that are as good as any other stage of his career.
Kroos was doing Kroos things from the first minute, drifting into the left half-space alongside his two centre-backs in the same way that he does for Real Madrid — allowing Maximilian Mittelstadt to push on and receive the ball higher from left-back.
Scotland’s zonal 5-4-1 mid-block had little answer for Kroos getting on the ball and dictating play from deep. As Steve Clarke’s side kept a narrow shape, Kroos did not need a second invitation to play those delightful switched balls from left to right — which worked beautifully for Germany’s opener.
Kroos’s legs may be tired as he prepares to bid farewell to football, but his game intelligence remains as sharp as ever. As Scotland switched to a 3-5-2 after going 2-0 down in the first half, Kroos saw his pocket of space become a little stifled in Germany’s build-up. His answer? Simply shuffle across and collect the ball between the centre-backs as they split wide, regaining the space and time on the ball, and continuing to dictate the game for his country.
Kroos played 102 passes across the game — more than any player on the pitch — and misplacing just a single pass. Granted, events conspired against Scotland but for context, their most prolific passer in the game was Tierney with less than half that figure.
If you do anything this tournament, just lap up the quality of Kroos. For the final time, enjoy the genius of a player whose career has been as glittering as the quality of his right boot.
Mark Carey
How did the players deal with the new officiating guidelines?
“We had a meeting on that, outlining all the rules. We have to respect that.”
Andy Robertson was clear on his remit as Scotland captain, as the only player able to discuss on-field decisions with the referee. A new UEFA initiative this summer has made it a bookable offence for players to approach referees to prevent them from being “mobbed”, with any player showing any sign of disrespect or dissent being shown a yellow card.
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Little did Robertson know that he would be so busy in the opening 45 minutes of Scotland’s campaign. Two penalty decisions in the first half — one not awarded, the other given for a horror tackle by Porteous — meant that he was as close to referee Turpin as any German player on the night.
It is worth noting that there was a welcome calmness from the players when a contentious decision did arise. Rather than a swarm of players congregating around the referee, Turpin appeared to have a forcefield around him upon blowing the whistle before welcoming Robertson and German captain Gundogan over for a chat.
There were the odd exceptions. Scott McTominay drifted behind Robertson during Germany’s second penalty review to ensure that he was in earshot of Turpin while Scotland’s captain tried to keep things calm. Porteous provided a half-hearted plead to stay on the field after his red card — largely with nothing more to lose — but those two examples appeared to be the closest form of dissent in a contest that was over by the end of the first half.
After one game, the new initiative appears to be working well. Sure, there were yellow cards, but none for dissent. However, just you wait until the decisions become more controversial later in the tournament.
Mark Carey
Did you notice Maximilian Mittelstadt’s performance?
This was a night when Mittelstadt needed a good start. He got one — and then played excellently from then on, making another stride in this most unlikely international career.
Mittelstadt’s decisions were extremely good against Scotland. Germany depend on him not just for precious width, but also to pick his moments to underlap or overlap in a way that creates space for the band of attacking midfielders ahead of him. Wirtz and Musiala were the stars of the night, but Mittelstadt was part of their performance, too.
And what a story. This time last year, Mittelstadt was about to be relegated with Hertha Berlin. He was an unremarkable full-back who was sold to Stuttgart for €500,000 (£423,000; $536,000) without anyone batting an eyelid.
What has followed has been remarkable. Part of his success is his team’s story — Stuttgart have been reinvented as a possession team by Sebastian Hoeness and have ridden that new style all the way to the Champions League. Mittelstadt has been one of the main beneficiaries, becoming part of a potent and stylish left hand side.
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Credit Nagelsmann for this. Had someone mentioned Mittelstadt as a potential international as recently as October 2023, they would have been laughed at. Ahead of RB Leizpig’s David Raum? No chance, surely. But Nagelsmann had a conviction that Mittelstadt would fit his system and help it to function. So far, he has been proven absolutely right.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
Was the goal a consolation for Scotland?
No Scotland, no party.
Steve Clarke’s men may have been humbled by a rampant German side — playing with 10 men for over 45 minutes — but you can be sure that they, and their fans, will rarely lose spirit.
Remarkably, Scotland did not actually have a shot when they pulled a consolatory goal back in the final stages of the game. A wide free-kick saw the German players swinging limbs to try and clear the ball, before Scott McKenna headed back across goal and pinged the ball off Antonio Rudiger and past Manuel Neuer.
This party went pretty badly for Scotland, but at least they got the opportunity to celebrate something. Now there is another one around the corner to make amends for tonight’s result.
Mark Carey
What did Julian Nagelsmann say?
The Germany manager was keen to stress the value of his team, rather than individuals like Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz. “I don’t really want to talk about singling out players. It’s super-interesting to see how our players became internationals, but they had different paths and unique paths, but one thing that unites everyone is that we’re part of this group and this group has learned to protect every member of the group and make everyone around them look good.
“That’s why I don’t want to talk about individual players. The group won the game today and I hope the country believes in us even more than before.”
Nagelsmann did highlight the importance of Toni Kross, however. “He’s very important like everyone else, very experienced, very calm. The team were really loud and he said a few quiet words that were very powerful and he’s part of the group and that’s what makes him so different. With his CV there would be a lot of players who would struggle to be integrated, but he’s not arrogant, he’s just part of the team like everyone else. He’s a pole of calmness. Very talented, very calm on the ball, but he and I we see him as part of the group.”
What did Steve Clarke say?
Steve Clarke was understandably subdued after the game. “Obviously we didn’t play to our standard and I thought the German team were excellent. We feel as if we’ve let ourselves down. We’re better than that. We’re a better team than we showed tonight and hopefully we can show that in the next two games. Tonight was always going to be a tough game. We need four points from the next two games and hopefully we can focus on that.
“We’ll go away, analyse the game as we always do, then we’ll do more work on Switzerland and we’ll shape our team to suit that game.”
What next for Germany?
Wednesday, June 19: Hungary, Group A (Stuttgart), 5pm BST, noon ET
What next for Scotland?
Wednesday, June 19: Switzerland, Group A (Cologne), 8pm BST, 3pm ET
Recommended reading
- Group A guide: Germany’s narrow No 10s, resolute Hungary and Scotland’s set pieces
- Germany squad guide: Wirtz and Musiala provide spark but defence is a concern
- Scotland squad guide: Greater than the sum of their parts and aiming high
- The seven gifts of Pascal Gross: How he became Germany’s Toni Kroos alternative
- Scottish football, Brexit and a talent drain to England that’s led to scouts being banned
(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)