On Friday night, Scotland's Euro 2024 campaign got off to the worst possible start when they lost 5-1 to Germany in Munich.
It was a night to forget for the Scotland fans inside the Allianz Arena and they will now have to face taunts from England fans until they next take to the field against Switzerland.
The only consolation from the night was that they did manage to get on the scoresheet, albeit from an own goal, despite playing for the entire second half with 10 men.
Ryan Poteous' two-footed challenge on Ilkay Gundogan late in the first half saw him leave the field and Steve Clarke will now have to change his backline for the matches against Switzerland and Hungary.
Speaking after the match with Germany, Clarke was keen to avoid getting too downbeat about the situation. His main was message to the Scotland fans inside the stadium who had delivered a stunning rendition of Flower of Scotland to kick-start the evening. Clarke's message to them afterwards was short and sweet. He told them:
“Keep the faith. See you at the next game.”
A rather disappointing result last night I think we can all agree. One things for sure is the fans that were lucky enough to make it into the ground did us proud with a lovely rendition of Flower of Scotland💙🏴
Down but not out. Roll on Wednesday⚽️ pic.twitter.com/ATiCfWruwi— Scottish Football Away Days (@days_scottish) June 15, 2024
Clarke praises his side and tells Scotland fans to get behind them
The Scotland manager was keen to ensure that heads don't drop both inside the camp and among fans despite the demoralising defeat. Dissecting the defeat to reporters afterwards, the former West Brom manager said:
“The game ran away from us very quickly, obviously we conceded a third and with the sending-off as well it was always going to be a difficult night and after that it was damage limitation. In the second half the boys gave everything they could to keep the scoreline reasonable but we have to move on from it.
“We will go away and analyse the game. I have never doubted my players. It was a difficult night and we didn’t play to our standard. Germany were excellent and we couldn’t get a foothold in the game.
“The players were disappointed, they felt they let themselves down, they are a better team than that and hopefully we can show that in the next two games.”