Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the Euro 2024 opener between the hosts Germany and Scotland from Munich. The European Championship has not been kind to host nations – only France in 1984 in an epic tournament won on home soil – but only in 2008, when both Austria and Switzerland lost their first games, have the hosts been beaten since the competition mushroomed in 1980.
Germany come into the match unbeaten in 2024, having beaten France in March to start their run when Julian Nagelsmann welcomed Toni Kroos back and the team suddenly began to click with Ilkay Gundogan playing further forward and Kai Havertz coming of age in the false nine role. Scotland, by contrast, lost their March friendlies with Northern Ireland and Netherlands before beating Gibraltar and drawing with Finland this month. Having lost two and drawn one of their three previous Euro opening matches, they start this one very much as underdogs. But even if they should lose today, Steve Clarke is confident the process can still yield a first ever qualification for the knockout stages of a continental and global tournament.
“The enormity of the opener is a bit of a sideshow and hopefully we don’t get too involved in that, “ he said. “It’s a difficult game. One of the mantras I’ve always had is respect everyone and fear no one. We have respect for the host nation, we know they’re a good team but hopefully we can show everyone we’re a good team as well.
“I can enjoy it. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in big matches, the Champions League final for example, it was nice to be involved in the last Euros. I can enjoy it, but I’ll enjoy it even more once we’ve got four points on the board.”
It is the second successive Euros for the Scots under Clarke and he said: “I think we should all be proud that we’re here. It’s been a long time since 1998 when we actually travelled abroad to appear in a tournament like this.”
And he said that the Tartan Army’s invasion of Bavaria will “give us a big boost. They’re going to be behind us in every minute of every game and that’s really important for us. We’ve had a little taste of it already at our base in. I’m sure there will be a few around in Munich tonight that we won’t see. We hope they will enjoy themselves and behave themselves.”