STEVE Clarke has expressed hope that Scotland can cause a major upset when they get Euro 2024 underway against host nation Germany in the opening game of the finals next summer.
The national team were last night drawn to play the four-time World Cup winners and home favourites in the first match of the tournament at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday, June 14.
They will face Switzerland in the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne on Wednesday, June 19, and Hungary in the MHPArena in Stuttgart on Sunday, June 24, in their other Group A fixtures.
READ MORE: Scotland's Euro 2024 cities analysed ahead of next summer
Asked about taking on Germany in the Euro 2024 curtain raiser after the draw in the Elbphilharmonie here in Hamburg last night, Clarke said: “It should be a good game. Is that enough? You know me, I don’t get too excited or get carried away.
“It should be a good occasion against Germany, the hosts, in the opening game. It’s special to be part of. We have to make sure it’s not about the occasion, it’s about the match.
“We have to make sure we turn up and play as well as we can against them. Sometimes in the opening game of a tournament there can be an upset. Hopefully it will be this time. We’re looking forward to that challenge.”
READ MORE: Euro 2024 draw recap: Scotland to face Germany, Hungary and Switzerland
Clarke added: “I remember almost nothing about the France 98’ game against Brazil (Scotland played the World Cup holders in the opening game of that tournament 25 years ago) because I didn’t get selected to go. I was in the huff so I never watched it!
“For the last four years, we’ve tried to improve game by game. We feel we’re on a path where we’ve done okay. But we also think we can do a bit better. So we’ll work hard and try to be as good as we can be for the tournament next summer.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel