5 VIP pundits eviscerate Scotland as Euro 2024's Mr Snidey gleefully attacks a 'terrible' team without a plan

There's no getting away from it when you're shown up on the world stage like that.

A combination of Scotland wilting on the big occasion and Germany hitting their stride immediately made for a painful night in Munich and a damaging 5-1 defeat to get Euro 2024 underway. Steve Clarke was disappointed yet defiant brodering on prickly in the aftermath, but there will be no hiding place in the aftermath as the pre-tournament optimism evaporated in less than 19 minutes at the Allianz.

Lessons have apparently been learned from Euro 2020, which saw Scotland go out on home soil with a whimper. The hope is that there is evidence of that in the next two games, neither of which can be lost if making out of Group A is to remain a realistic possibility. The reaction, for the most part, has acknowledged that Scotland were up against genuine class and having a man less for half the game only makes a bad situation worse.

But that doesn't excuse just how wrong Clarke and his players got it after months of preparation. Good old Rafael van der Vaart is never one for diplomacy, and he'll be just as sharp tongued about his own nation if they are to fall flat. He was in typically critical form when assessing how we dealt with Toni Kroos and co: "Scotland are absolutely terrible. And they thought you know what? Let's not mark Toni Kroos."

Record Sport has picked out some of the more biting conclusions from elsewhere.

Kris Boyd

The Sky Sports pundit took aim at Ryan Porteous after his red card, but the Scotland camp as a whole were in the firing line after the game. And Boyd is worried that the big tournament jitters are taking hold once again now Scotland are actually there, and it needs to be nipped in the bud.

"They were embarrassing," Boyd told Sky Sports News. "They deserve enormous credit for getting there but we can't keep getting to competitions and freezing. That's exactly what happened. Germany were very good, but at the end of the day you've got to track your runners, you've got to stay with them and show more confidence on the ball when you get it.

"I'd be astonished if Scotland had any more than 10 passes put together in any phase of play. At this level, if you're going to get anything, that's one thing you need to do."

Shay Given

Given knows how Angus Gunn will be feeling this morning. The Ireland keeper shipped four to Spain during a disastrous Euro 2012 campaign that saw the Boys In Green dumped out with no points, nine goals conceded and one scored. But he did offer a sliver of hope to suffering Scots.

"It doesn't make it any easier when you see the goals back. You see the fans after and their reaction. You feel, as a player, you've let them down. They've travelled all that distance like the Scottish fans tonight in their thousands - to support you. You feel you've let the country down.

There's a huge build up before a tournament, you get the suits, the bus, the big send-off in Dublin Airport. There's a huge razzmatazz and excitement around the whole thing. When it goes so wrong like it did in 2012...you're coming back to the country with almost heads bowed. We let them down.

"We lost to Croatia first, then we had Spain next and then we had Italy. They've got Switzerland and Hungary next.

The good thing for the Scottish guys is, 'We aren't playing Germany next, we aren't playing a top European team next. We're playing teams probably on the same level as us. The performance we put in to get to the EUROs, we have to show that against Switzerland in five days.'

"They're not playing against World Cup winners or European winners, they're playing against a team - I think - on a similar sort of level as them."

Adrian Durham

The talkSport shock jock is never shy in coming forward and savages several Scotland stars in his player ratings. The sad thing is that you can't really argue with him. He said: "Andy Robertson, 1/10. A captain that did not lead by example. It was even worse for Ryan Porteous: "0/10, absolutely atrocious."

Che Adams got cut a little slack given the near impossible job he had up front on his own. Durham rated him: "I'll give him 3/10 because he worked hard but he was isolated. Did he even touch the ball? I can't remember."

Pat Nevin

Nevin is usually one of our more optimistic pundits. But even he couldn't defend Ryan Porteous as he called on the Watford man to apologise to both Gundogan and his own teammates.

"Ryan Porteous will be disappointed because he let himself down. It was a horrifying tackle. Hopefully I’m fair-minded enough that, when I saw the replay, I wanted him sent off. I don’t want to see a tackle like that happen to anyone.

"The first thing he should do is apologise to Ilkay Gundogan. The red mist comes down and he does it out of desperation, but you can’t do that. Your teammates are knackered now after chasing shadows.

"It’s a big error, but did it make a huge difference? Probably not.