Steve Clarke serves up same Scotland dross as last Euros opener after monumental miscalculation - Keith Jackson in Munich

We could be kind to Steve Clarke and his players and put it all down to stage fright.

Or simply attempt to sum up the whole nightmarish experience as a soul-crushing, pride-swallowing, disappointment. But nobody would buy it. Or at least not anyone who had the stomach to watch this catastrophic opening-night butchering to its ultimate and inevitable conclusion.

The truth is, this beating was more savage than even the scoreline suggests. It was an embarrassment bordering on a national humiliation. And worst of all, as good as the Germans were – and they were infuriatingly rampant – it was also largely self-inflicted. On the very night that the world tuned in to see what Clarke and his vastly improved team are really all about, the manager and his players took it in turn to malfunction and lose sight of the very attributes which had brought them onto this stage in the first place.

It was a truly hideous watch. An agonisingly one-sided ordeal of a football match as Florian Wirtz started the rout, Jamal Musiala added to it and Kai Havertz made it three before half-time. Substitute Niclas Fullkrug put the hosts 4-0 up in the second half and was denied a fifth by an offside ruling before Antonio Rudiger took pity on us and stuck one into the roof of his own net.

This was Scotland’s only effort on target all night. But this pummelling was completed in added time when another German sub, this time Emre Can, fired home from distance. And, over the course of 90 traumatic minutes, it robbed the country of the last fumes of the feel good factor which Clarke had stuck in Scotland’s tank by taking us all here.

Indeed, the longer it went on, the more it all felt like a seriously bad idea going to all this bother, amid such misplaced anticipation. It was hard enough for the Tartan Army foot soldiers with tickets to get into the Allianz Arena in the first place given that UEFA’s organisation outside was also utterly chaotic.

They’re making a habit of it, seemingly without learning any lessons. But then, the same could be said for Scotland. Because, when the Tartan Army did breach the perimeters to get inside, they discovered another potential error of judgment was waiting there for them.

Even worse, this one was all Clarke’s doing. The manager had one major call to make and, in doing so, he left Billy Gilmour on the bench to make room for Ryan Christie. Even before a ball had been kicked, it seemed a mystifyingly risky call and no one looked more befuddled by it than Christie.

Rather than deploy Gilmour in the interests of holding onto the ball, he opted for someone better suited to chasing around after it in the hope that Christie’s forward running power might do the Germans greater damage. It was a monumental miscalculation. Elsewhere, Anthony Ralston got the nod at right-back and Ryan Porteous was at the heart of Scotland’s three-man defence. All big decisions, admittedly, but not in the same ball park as leaving Gilmour on the sidelines.

Still, the volcanic din which greeted the first sighting of Scotland’s players emerging for their warm-up suggested that spirits had not been too badly burned. By the time the anthems were being belted out, after the fireworks of the opening ceremony and the emotion of a tribute to Franz Beckenbauer, the place had taken on its own life form.

And it was about to eat this Scotland side alive. Clarke’s players froze as if overcome and paralysed by stage fright.

Yes, in the opening minutes Gunn saved one from Wirtz when the dangerman had darted in behind. Porteous then did well to stop the Bayer Leverkusen man getting through again and Kieran Tierney provided crucial cover when Musiala outstripped Andy Robertson. But the tone had been set.

Scotland were being taken apart and resorting to the aimless, long ball, hit and hope tactics which left such a scar on their last opening night in the Euros against the Czech Republic. It was the same old dross. The wrong team, the wrong tactics and at precisely the wrong time. That it took 10 minutes for the first goal to arrive was really the only surprise.

That it was scored so easily was no shock at all. Toni Kroos was afforded time and space to zip a 50-yard crossfield ball into the feet of Joshua Kimmich. The full-back was allowed to bring it down without being harassed by Robertson before picking out Wirtz on the edge of the box.

Remarkably, he wasn’t closed down either as he wrapped a shot towards goal which Gunn should have saved but fisted in off the post. It was 2-0 in 18 minutes when Ralston lost Havertz as the Arsenal man dashed into Scotland’s box. His lay-off teed up Musiala and a split second later it was crashing high into Gunn’s net. Scotland survived a penalty scare soon after when Christie clattered into a stupid tackle on Musiala only to be spared by VAR.

But the spot-kick did eventually come on the stroke of half-time when Porteous reverted to bad old habits and launched into a two-footed tackle on Ilkay Gundogan which could have broken the Barcelona man’s ankle.

This time the replays were used as evidence for the prosecution. Porteous was shown a straight red card and Havertz sent Gunn the wrong way from the spot.

It was becoming excruciating now but, in truth, Scotland were lucky to go inside at the break only three goals and one man down. Clarke, perhaps from stubbornness, only made one change at the interval.

He replaced Adams with Grant Hanley and asked Christie to lead the line even though he seemed shell-shocked and shot of all confidence. It was now only a matter of trying to limit the damage the hosts were inflicting. That too looked like a long shot, especially when Wirtz and Havertz were replaced by Leroy Sane and Fullkrug for the last half hour, with both looking to get their teeth into a badly bloodied victim.

It took the latter just six minutes to take a bite, latching onto Hanley’s stumble to rifle home from 16 yards. Seconds earlier, but lamentably too late, Clarke had sent on Gilmour for Callum McGregor with Kenny McLean replacing John McGinn.

Those looked like changes made with Wednesday in mind – when we face Switzerland in Cologne – even if, right now, it feels like a fairly pointless, hopeless exercise. There was the minor relief of Fullkrug being denied a quick-fire second goal when the computer caught him half a yard offside and, mercifully, said no to Germany’s fifth.

Four minutes from time, there was the consolation of Scott McKenna’s header being deflected into his own net by Rudiger. But the token joy didn’t last long before Can beat Gunn with another shot which the keeper couldn’t reach.

The fact is Scotland’s Euros are not yet over, even if this did feel very much like the end of the world.