Every Friday, the Scottish(Scotland) optimism that pervaded Munich felt like a collective hypnosis, a belief fueled by alcohol.
For the first ten minutes of their Euro 2024 opener, Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala began to convert the fantasy those fans were holding onto so tightly into a nightmare.
It was incorrect for the Tartan Army to believe that this was their party.
They were embarrassed that, although paying a hefty price to be here, a good many of them could have spent much more to be somewhere other than Munich.
We can reflect on those early moments of shell shock and analyze how things transpired.
Anthony Ralston, the hesitant marker, gave space and time to the amazing Wirtz.
Then another moment: Kai Havertz eluding Ralston and laying the groundwork for the equally talented Musiala.
It was advantageous for them because Ryan Porteous wandered around on Ralston’s side of the field, where Wirtz and Musiala alternatedly walked.
Two of Europe’s most talented 21-year-olds were tag-teaming the Scotland defenders. Porteous was given a red card, and Ralston was willing but troubled.
The German duo searched for their target by switching from the right wing to the left.
The next three, four, and five goals followed later, but damage containment was the only game Scotland played after Wirtz and Musiala established the agenda, and they were unsuccessful in that meek endeavor as well.
Here’s some background information. This past season, Wirtz was the Bundesliga’s greatest surprise with 18 goals and 19 assists for a Bayer Leverkusen squad that lit it up and won the title.
To the complete surprise of nobody in Germany, Wirtz was quick and vicious and just 21 years old when he drove the first knife into the collective heart of Scotland.
On the other hand, Ralston, who is truthful but has a busy day, is unable to join the Celtic team. Last season, he started six league games.
After an injury crisis at right wing back, a bit-part player for Brendan Rodgers was suddenly challenged to transform into a European-caliber defender who could put Wirtz and Musiala back in their boxes.
Compared to his teammates, Ralston ran the most meters. He persevered and put up a valiant battle.
Others involved in this fiasco in Scotland were never near the game’s pitch. The older males made no suggestions. The seasoned athletes who contributed so much to their success never showed up.
For the most part of the trip to Germany, John McGinn was in fact “Super,” but here, if he ever came to life at all, he vanished like a candle
Scott McTominay and Callum McGregor were spectators to the German massacre.
It was Angus Gunn who was walking between the sticks.
One of his better passers, Billy Gilmour, was left off the field by Steve Clarke, a move that could cost the manager some points.
Would Gilmour’s ostentation have changed anything, though? Not a possibility.
Because of how far and wide the malaise in Scotland had reached, and how shamefully deep the quality differential was, Gilmour would have perished along with the ship along with the rest of them from the beginning.
Scotland’s sentimentality has completely vanished.”
The team’s training facility is close to the Austrian border, and Clarke faces a mountain of work ahead of him as high as the ski slopes.
He assured that once the competitive spirit of tournament football returned, Scotland’s previous lackluster performances will pick up steam.
No. This was only an extension of a theme, a recurrence of human frailties that are quickly turning from the exception into the rule.
Clarke ran over every possible possibility in his thoughts, but a goal different of minus four is a doomsday scenario, undoubtedly a million times worse than anything he could have imagined.
He now has a team that, after talking up a good game going into it, was unable to muster even a single shot on goal, let alone one that was on target.
Germany were clearly superior, scoring five goals and having the opportunity for six more after Porteous’s lunge, which left Ilkay Gundogan, who was on the receiving end of it, wince more than anybody else in the stands.
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