A 5-1 defeat to Germany has brought the Scotland critics out after a tough Euro 2024 opener.
Steve Clarke’s side were down 3-0 at half-time and conceded another two in the second half, with Antonio Rudiger’s own goal a mere consolation. The job was made tougher with Ryan Porteous’ sending off for a lunge on Ilkay Gundogan in the first 45 minutes.
Defender Jack Hendry told BBC Scotland: "Obviously it's an extremely disappointing result and probably the manner that it came about. Now we've got to focus on the games coming up. Anything is possible, you can't get too downbeat. Germany are a very good team. We have got to dust ourselves down and move forward.
"We'll analyse what went wrong when we get back to base camp and try and make sure that doesn't happen in the next two games. I don't think we can be too critical on ourselves given that we've got two games remaining.
"As footballers you always analyse games so for us now it's extremely important we get to the bottom of how that result came about. We'll learn from it and hopefully give a better account of ourselves in the next game. Games come quickly, this one will be swept under the carpet quite quickly.
"When you go down to 10 men against a top team like Germany it's never going to be great. We have come this far because we're a strong nation. We stick together and we can't let a result like this get us down."
A Liverpool star has been criticised, the performance lamented and the red card challenge spared no punches. Here are what 12 pundits said about the game vs Germany.
9. Ally McCoist (ITV)
"Scotland have to change their mentality ahead of their next two games. It was poor, Germany excellent, Scotland poor. Scotland have to get balls into the box, get players forward. There has to be a completely different approach. From Scotland’s point of view, it should be slightly easier now as I don’t believe the other two teams will be at the same standard as Germany. They are good teams, but not as good as Germany." | Getty Images
10. Leanne Crichton (Sportsound)
"The lesson for me is that this result is coming in game one. The opportunity is still there to get four points. The reality is, park this game. There's nothing you'll take from hanging onto it. Switzerland and Hungary will be completely different opponents to this game. Germany had everything in their favour tonight. Photo: Ross MacDonald - SNS Group
11. Kris Boyd (Sky)
"The referee was left with no option. It was the correct decision. When you go to close the ball down, fine, fair enough, But when you have two feet off the ground it's always going to be a red card. It's a horrible tackle. Gundogan's lucky he's actually back on his feet. It could have been a leg breaker. As much as Gundogan's leg is not planted on the deck, he gets away with it." Photo: Ross MacDonald - SNS Group
12. Willie Miller (BBC Sport Scotland)
"I don't think you're going to see Ryan Porteous in the tournament again. I think it would be hard to convince the manager, if he's going to be that rash, to be included again. It was just about as bad as we could have been, we were nowhere near it. We've had no momentum for 10 games now. It's not impossible to qualify but it's a big ask to find the confidence and belief." Photo: Alan Harvey - SNS Group