Germany vs Scotland live updates (2024)

Host nation Germany thrashed 10-man Scotland 5-1 in the opening match of the 2024 European Championship.

Germany started confidently and raced into an early lead when Florian Wirtz beat Angus Gunn from distance. The impressive Jamal Musiala then doubled Germany’s lead before Scotland’s Ryan Porteous was sent off for an ugly lunge on Ilkay Gundogan in the penalty box, with Kai Havertz converting from the spot.

Substitute Niclas Fullkrug fired home a fourth late in the second half. Scotland did manage a late consolation through an Antonio Rudiger own goal, only for Emre Can to restore the home side’s four-goal advantage with the final kick of the match.

The two other teams in Group A — Hungary and Switzerland — meet in the second match of the tournament on Saturday.

Coming up on Saturday, there are three more games.

• Hungary vs Switzerland at 2pm BST, 9am ET.
• Spain vs Croatia at 5pm BST, 12pm ET.
• Italy vs Albania at 8pm BST, 3pm ET.

All of those games will have dedicated live blogs right here on The Athletic, so we hope to see you tomorrow!

Enjoyed our coverage of Euro 2024 so far?

A reminder: you can subscribe to The Athletic using our discount offer for the tournament here.

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.

Read more from the Briefing below

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.

Read more from the Briefing below

“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.

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.

Read more from the Briefing below

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.

Read more from the Briefing below

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.

Read more from the Briefing below

There’s bad first halves, then there’s that. Defensively, Scotland were fairly watertight for 25 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.

Read more from the Briefing below

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.

Read more from the Briefing below

A real difference in Julian Nagelsmann’s demeanour this evening. Lighter, more relaxed, playful even.

The conversation around the national team has completely changed after tonight, for now at least, and it shows.

Niclas Fullkrug and Emre Can, both goalscorers for Germany tonight, spoke about their team's performance after the match.

"We started well, we had a lot of possession," Fullkrug said. "Things got better as the game went on. We had a lot of energy, many good deep runs. I think over 90 minutes we fully deserved to win the game, although Scotland were down to 10 men for a long time. The atmosphere was incredible, of course we noticed since we arrived at the stadium. It was exactly the start we wanted."

On his goal he added, "It was instinctive. I had a good first touch, I didn't think a lot and just took the shot."

Emre Can, meanwhile, spoke about replacing Aleksandar Pavlovic in the squad due to his tonsillitis. "Crazy story," he said. "Two days ago I was on holiday. I got the call on Wednesday, trained once, came on today and scored. I'm very happy and grateful to Julian (Nagelsmann) and his staff."

Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, speaking to ITV after the match, said: "I’m happy, I’m satisfied, it's not easy to have the first game in our own country. We were brilliant in the first 20 minutes, I was happy with the performance.

"We conceded but at the end it’s okay, it’s a good sign that our players complained about conceding. I was kind of surprised that Scotland weren't that aggressive in first 20 minutes. I think they were surprised by our ball possession, it was very concentrated.

"They then defended deeper and didn't high press as they have in the qualifying games at times."

Speaking on ITV, Steve Clarke added: "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 a 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."

Speaking after the win, Thomas Muller said: "It's just the first step, but we haven't done that in the last few tournaments. It was a great start today. But now we have to keep our feet on the ground."

He's right that Germany haven't started major tournaments well in recent years. Here's their opening games from the past three tournaments:

• 2022 World Cup: 2-1 loss to Japan
• Euro 2020: 1-0 loss to France
• 2018 World Cup: 1-0 loss to Mexico

Scotland midfielder Ryan Christie, who won his 50th cap for his country tonight, admitted how good their opponents were this evening.

He said: "You dream of running out and beating Germany but it wasn't to be.

"We knew they were going to be good, but they were pretty impressive tonight."

The Scottish national team has posted a statement on X aimed at their fans.

It reads: "A difficult evening in Munich, but your support tonight and over the last few weeks has been incredible - we don't take it for granted.

"Thank you," followed by a blue-heart emoji.

As Steve Clarke looks ahead to Scotland's two remaining group-stage fixtures, let's take a look at the rest of Group A's schedule.

Tomorrow:

• Hungary vs Switzerland in Cologne

Wednesday:

• Germany vs Hungary in Stuttgart
• Scotland vs Switzerland in Cologne

Sunday, June 23:

• Switzerland vs Germany in Frankfurt
• Scotland vs Hungary in Stuttgart

Scotland boss Steve Clarke had more to say on his side's underperformance in Munich this evening.

He said: "It’s a difficult night. We didn’t play to our standard. I feel as though we’ve let ourselves down.

"We’re better than we showed tonight and hopefully we can show that in the next two games."

Scotland boss Steve Clarke said on ITV Sport after the match: "Germany were outstanding and, unfortunately, we couldn't match them. The first half ran away from us very quickly; we couldn't get a foothold in the game.

"What we need to do is still in front of us. That's what we have to focus on.

"It's all about reacting, so let's see how they react. (The target is) four points from the next two games."