Euro 2024 LIVE: Germany vs Scotland team news and kick off time as tournament begins

Netherlands 1 Scotland 0 (June 12, 1992)

After failing to make it to any of the previous eight European Championships, Scotland eventually qualified for the first time when it was staged in Sweden in 1992. Their debut at the Euros was in Gothenburg’s Ullevi Stadium, against Rinus Michels’ Netherlands, who had won the previous staging of the tournament in 1988. Managed by Andy Roxburgh, the Scots held their own for most of the match against the likes of Ronald Koeman, Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten before their resistance was eventually breached in the 75th minute by 23-year-old Ajax striker Dennis Bergkamp. The Scots lost their second game against Germany and bowed out with their heads held high after defeating the CIS 3-0 their final group match.

Netherlands 0 Scotland 0 (June 10, 1996)

At their second Euros in England four years later, Scotland – by now under the charge of Roxburgh’s assistant, Craig Brown – once again kicked off their tournament against the Dutch. The match took place at Villa Park and as they had done in Sweden, the Scots again managed to frustrate their more-illustrious opponents for long periods. This time it paid off in the form of a goalless draw, but it was not enough to set them on their way to the knockout phase as a defeat against England at Wembley proved damaging before they exited the tournament in agonising fashion, despite winning their final match against Switzerland.

Scotland 0 Czech Republic 2 (June 14, 2021)

A nation was ablaze with hype as Scotland prepared for their first match at a major tournament for 23 years and there was the added quirk of it being on home soil. To mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament, UEFA decided the hosting of Euro 2020 would be shared by 11 cities across the continent, with Glasgow one of those selected. Due to the Covid pandemic, the competition was delayed by a year until 2021 and only around 12,000 fans were allowed into Hampden Park for the clash with the Czech Republic to allow for social distancing. With high hopes that they could capitalise on home advantage, Steve Clarke’s side fell flat and lost 2-0 as Patrik Schick scored a double, including a stunning second-half strike from close to the half-way line that caught David Marshall off his line. The defeat left the Scots up against it in their quest to reach the knockout stage and they managed to take just one point from their remaining two matches against England and Croatia.

Walter, a 35-year-old Sumatran orangutan living at Dortmund Zoo, will make predictions for all matches involving the German national team as well as the final in July.

He previously predicted that Borussia Dortmund would win the 2014 cup final in the country against Bayern Munich, by picking up the Dortmund shirt and putting it on his head, however he was wrong as Bayern beat their opponents 2-0.

“Germany are not at the same level now as they were then,” former Scotland international Gordon Strachan told PA. “When you look back at the experience they had, they were a good group.

“But I remember when Kech (Anya) scored a wonderful goal after about 60 minutes, we had been playing well before that and I really thought we could go on and win it. The longer that game went on, the more our players grew into it and I stood there feeling really confident. But for all the good football we played, we lost a goal from a set-play.

“It was actually a foul on Charlie Mulgrew. If there had been VAR then, it would have been a foul. But even after that there was a point where Naisy (Steven Naismith) went through and got brought down and the guy should have been sent off. We had loads of respect for them but we had nothing to fear, and I think that’s the mood that Steve will be hoping for from his team. Respect them but don’t fear them, and I think he’s got players that can do it.”

He said: “The first Euros was massive for us, now we want to compete. Last time we felt in the England game we did pretty well but let ourselves down in the other two or thought we could do a bit better.

“We don’t want to have any regrets this time. What’s the worst that can happen? We go into a long list of teams that have failed to make it out the group so let’s start from that point and move on from it. We believe we can be the team to make history. We have put ourselves in a good position by qualifying first and foremost and let’s see what we can do.

“We’re excited by the challenge, we’re excited about what’s ahead and if we perform the way I know we can perform then I’m confident we can make history. We know what is at stake. As I said, what’s the worst that can happen? You join the list of good Scotland teams that failed to make it out the group.

“The flipside to that is we can be the first team to do that. We have lots of incentives to do well but that is the main one, to become a legendary squad, the first team to make it to the knockout stages.

“That is driving us forward but we are in a difficult group and we have to be at our best to have a chance of doing that.”

The parallels felt uncanny. A Germany team at its lowest ebb for years, having been dispatched ignominiously from the group stages of two of the three previous tournaments, having ditched one manager and parachuted in another, were the hosts with the low expectations. If the 2006 World Cup came to symbolise a national footballing rebirth for Germany, surprise semi-finalists who played endearingly attacking football with a likeable bunch of players, it seemed as though the best-case scenario was for a repeat of sorts in Euro 2024. But further embarrassment started to look more probable.

Because the 2022 World Cup brought an early exit as in 2018, the ultimate Turniermannschaft discovering the tournament would go on without them. And arguably 2023 was still worse; only partly because of the release of the Amazon documentary of the World Cup campaign in which Hansi Flick tried to motivate his players by comparing them to geese. It wasn’t the major reason why Flick became the first Germany manager to be sacked but it did contribute to rendering him a lame duck.

“Scotland isn’t a team full of world stars, but that makes them dangerous, because they are very agile players who give everything, with classic Scottish mentality,” he told a press conference on Thursday.

“When I look in my players’ eyes … I see a lot of belief and a lot of confidence, which is what I want … we have the home advantage, we want to win.”

“We can beat pressure, and we can beat Scotland as well.”

As Scotland visualise walking out against hosts Germany in the opening game of Euro 2024, they will expect the eyes of the world to be on them. Statements of Scottish defiance are now rarely heard at major tournaments, yet on the eve of the Euros, captain Andy Robertson declared: “If we perform the way we know we can perform, we believe we can make history.”

It has been 26 years since Scotland played a fixture of such international magnitude. Against Germany, there will be a symmetry to when the Tartan Army took on Brazil at the Stade de France in the opening game of the 1998 World Cup. That tournament, like many before, became one of glorious failure for Scotland. A generation on, this team believes they can become the first to progress from a group stage.

Don’t laugh but when the draw for the Euro 2024 finals was made, there was a faint sense of optimism among the Scotland contingent that Steve Clarke’s side were ready to spoil the party when facing hosts Germany in the tournament opener on Friday 14 June. Frankly, December 2023 feels a long time ago now. Back then, Germany were in a funk and could have been susceptible to a well-organised, cohesive unit. Now depleted and out-of-form, Scotland do not look like the same team that roared to automatic qualification last year. The odds of an upset are stacked against them.

Still, the Tartan Army will be out in force as Scotland head to just a second men’s major international tournament in 25 years, determined to put on a better show after falling a little flat at Hampden at Euro 2020. As it was three years ago, Scotland’s goal will simply be getting out of their group and reaching the last-16. Given the tournament format, securing even just one Group A victory against Germany, Switzerland or Hungary could be enough. There are harder groups, sure, but Scotland’s form suggests they could still be fourth-favourites to progress.

Germany, for instance, look like Germany again, even as expectations for the host nation are not as high as you might expect. Embarrassing group-stage exits from the 2018 and 2022 World Cups still hang over this team but Julian Nagelsmann appears to have rediscovered the feel-good factor. Comparisons are already being made to Ein Sommermärchen, the summer fairytale of 2006, when a young, fresh Germany side united a country as they progressed through their home World Cup. Recent wins over the Netherlands and France suggests Germany are coming into form at the right time.

It wasn’t the only new thing Kane had to endure. Although he has obviously experienced trophy disappointment on many occasions, it has never been when success was so expected. Kane had made the hard choice to leave Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern, only to suddenly find success wasn’t coming easy for the perennial German champions. It did hit him. The striker still registered this most painful of seasons – as he put it himself – in the way he always does. He internalised it and persevered. It was why the banquet suited him more than most. It helped him “get on with it”, in the way he always does.