How calamitous Scotland's Euros bubble burst in Germany as night of rashness brings big questions on team

Kai Havertz casually dinked in Germany's third goal from the penalty spot, by which time the Watford defender was halfway down the stairs. His teammates will have yearned to join him. They were soon permitted to do so. 

Referee Clement Turpin blew his half-time whistle shortly afterwards and there ended perhaps the most calamitous half of major tournament football ever seen from Scotland (and there’s been one or two).  

Talk about bursting a balloon. All the hype, all the talk in the eight months since Scotland qualified in mid-October. All the posing for photographs for sticker books. All the fittings for the Royle Eleven outfits the players wore as they inspected the pitch on their arrival.  

All the agonising over who should play up front against the hosts. All rendered completely meaningless about 20 minutes into the first game. It was around this time that Germany realised they had been blessed with an extra, unscheduled training session.  

The Scots did not even play with a recognised striker for a large part of the second half in a bleak echo of the night in Prague under Craig Levein. Lawrence Shankland came on with nine minutes left but Scotland were now trailing 4-0 after substitute Niclas Fullkrug placed a rocket beyond Angus Gunn. 

Scotland did finally manage to get an effort on target with three minutes left but it was not even their shot. Antonio Rudiger inadvertently headed into his own goal to prompt some Tartan Army gallows humour. “You’re not singing any more!” the fans chorused in the direction of their hosts. The thing is, the Germans were singing again very quickly. Substitute Emre Can saw his shot from the edge of the box take a slight deflection and nestle in the left hand corner of Angus Gunn’s goal. It was the last kick of a brutal, brutal evening for Scotland.    

Steve Clarke withdrew Che Adams, who had barely featured in the opening 45 minutes, at the interval. On came Grant Hanley to help shore up the defence and try to prevent any more damage. Goal difference is so vital in tournament football. Even with that late own goal, Scotland might already be sunk. They will certainly be fighting for their lives in Cologne against Switzerland in midweek. 

The only surprise was the absence of Mexican waves. This is a proper football nation after all. One whom we could trust to get the opening ceremony right, which they did. Crucially, it was mercifully brief. Clarke had warned about the potential to get caught up in the pre-match “circus”. Scotland could not even use that as an excuse. 

Scotland might have come to Germany en masse but this still proved very much home territory for the hosts. They exhibited their usual class in a stadium where the Scottish fans had contributed so significantly to the atmosphere pre-match. 

The opening moments were frantic. Tell us something we didn’t expect. Scottish hearts were in mouths as danger man Florian Wirtz burst through after Antonio Rudger’s long ball but an offside flag shot up after Gunn had managed to block with his head. It would not have counted. Still, it was a warning.

Clarke had sprung a couple of major surprises by including Porteous in the starting XI and excluding Billy Gilmour. It was his answer to the dilemma of how to fit Scott McTominay back into the team. Ryan Christie started on the left.  McTominay was deployed as a sitter. It was not a success. 

The first bad touch from a German player came after seven minutes of almost continual pressing when Robert Andrich saw the ball bobble off his boot. Porteous dispossessed Jamal Musiala with a well-timed challenge in the box. Perhaps everything was going to be all right. 

But no, Scotland still looked like rabbits caught in the headlights. In a way, it was understandable. It was the biggest night in most of the players’ careers. The build-up had been interminable. 

They had been itching to get started but when it finally did start, when the eyes of Europe were finally on then, things began to unravel very quickly indeed. Toni Kroos – who else? – prompted the goal avalanche with a trademark sweeping ball out to the right. 

Joshua Kimmich crossed and Florian Wirtz steadied himself before firing towards goal. The shot might have taken the merest deflection off Jack Hendry but while Gunn was able to get a hand to the ball, it was not strong enough to prevent it hitting the post and crawling over the line. Clarke stared down at his pad. This was not the way he had planned it. The decision not to start with Gilmour was already beginning to look questionable. 

McTominay was getting his pocket picked. Christie was too often even getting places where the ball had just been. Scotland were chasing shadows to put it bluntly. Musiala thrashed in number two after easily wrong-footing Callum McGregor, who had seemed to have been highlighted as a weak link by Germany, although they were spoilt for choice in that regard. No Scottish player got pass marks. Christie bundled over Musiala and Turpin pointed to the spot. It was not the circumstances in which Andy Robertson will have wanted to road-test the new rule where only skippers are allowed to question the referee. Fortunately, VAR rescinded the award. The challenge was outside the box. 

Scotland constructed a ten-man wall and survived. The relief was temporary. Porteous lapsed into his old rash ways and upended Ilkay Gundogan. This time there was no reprieve. And that same might also apply to Scotland's future in the entire tournament.  

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