Julian Nagelsmann stunned by timid Scotland and claims rivals ditched their best asset in Euro 2024 disaster

Julian Nagelsmann admits he was shocked by how timid Scotland were in Munich and reckons they were AFRAID of Germany's firepower.

The roof caved in less than ten minutes into the Euro 2024 opener against the hosts and the Scots were left floundering in the rubble as the Germans inflicted the heaviest ever first game defeat at a European Championship. Ryan Porteous' red card at 2-0 buried any flicker of hope that remained deeply out of reach and in the end keeping Julian Nagelsmann's men to five goals was some sort of achievement in the context.

Antonio Rudiger's own goal was the only attempt from Steve Clarke's men over a miserable 90 plus minutes during which Manuel Neuer barely broke sweat until he was beaten by his teammate's inadvertent header. And Nagelsmann expected a much tougher time of it based on what he'd seen from Scotland in the stellar qualifying campaign.

"it's never easy in the first game as the home country," he told ITV. "We look back at the first games of the last tournaments that weren't that good so we had that kind of pressure. But first 20 minutes we were brilliant with good possession and good counter pressing and aggressively.

"I was surprised that Scotland weren't that aggressive in the first 20 minutes. I think they were kind of surprised of our ball possession. It was really concentrated. We only made one mistake in the first 15 minutes and Scotland was kind of surprised, kind of afraid. It felt that way against offensive players who can score goals, and they defended a bit deeper.

"They didn't make the high pressure like they did in the qualifying games. The first 20 minutes were key for the game."

Meanwhile, opposite number Steve Clarke insists the target remains the same despite a battering in Bavaria. He said: "The first half ran away from us very quickly. We didn't give ourselves a foothold in the game. Defensively we weren't very good and with the ball we weren't very good so the end result is a disappointing night.

"I thought the ten men in the second were manful. Worked hard, tried to limit the chances and managed to nick a goal. Disappointed to lose the fifth goal in injury time but listen, you can talk all day about goals. What we need to do is still in front of us so that's what we have to focus on. Now it's all about reactions so let's see how they react.

"Four points is the target. I've said that from the start. Four points, next two games."