Germany vs Scotland: Euro 2024 hosts aim to make their mark

Germany will be looking to make their mark when they open this summer’s UEFA EURO 2024 competition against Scotland. As hosts of the quadrennial men’s competition, die Mannschaft will be aiming to put on a good show in front of their home fans and finally silence a growing chorus of critics following poor performances in major tournaments as of late.

It seems like a lifetime ago that Germany were being crowned champions of the world after Mario Gotze’s heroics earned die Mannschaft a slim 1-0 win over Argentina. Their subsequent foray into international competitions over the past decade has not exactly been inspiring, to say the least. Although Germany did make it to the semi-finals of the 2016 Euro competition, they come into this year’s tournament having seen early exits in every single one of their last three major international tournaments.

That includes becoming the latest victims of the “World Cup winner’s curse” in 2018, when they were knocked out in the group stages, and they suffered the same humiliating fate in 2022. On the Euro front, Germany saw their run end early during the re-scheduled UEFA EURO 2020 competition, during which they departed early after failing to get past the round of 16.

The team have also undergone quite a bit of changes in the past decade. While stalwarts like Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller still remain, Joachim Low, who was on the tactician’s bench for well over a decade, has since departed. The Hansi Flick experiment ended in abject failure as Germany were dumped out of the World Cup group stages for the second consecutive tournament, and now, the responsibility has been placed on Julian Naglesmann’s shoulders to see a revival in their fortunes this summer.

Neuer’s inclusion in the squad has raised some major eyebrows, as his performances in between the posts have not exactly been inspiring, to say the least. However, despite a poor showing against Greece, the Bayern Munich man is nonetheless expected to feature in the starting XI in what likely will be his final major international tournament for Germany. Meanwhile, Naglesmann interestingly opted to leave out players like Serge Gnabry, Timo Werner, and Leon Goretzka for various reasons, while Kai Havertz, whose confidence should have improved following a solid season with Arsenal, is expected to contend with Dortmund’s Niclas Fullkrug as the preferred choice to lead the line. And elsewhere, players like Jonathan Tah and Florian Wirtz, fresh off a fantastic season with Bayer Leverkusen that saw die Werkself finally knock Bayern Munich off their perch, will be hopeful of bringing that same impressive form to the national side as Germany seek to win their first major title in a decade.

So far, Germany have been in solid form, with three wins and a draw from their past four games. While they were shockingly held to a scoreless draw against Ukraine, they did beat the likes of France and the Netherlands – two teams who they could end up meeting at some point in this competition. That being said, Germany have played far less football than many of the other teams coming into this competition, and it will be interesting to see if that will come back to haunt them as they hope to win what would be their fourth European Championship this summer.

Fortunately for Germany, they have been placed in a relatively comfortable group. First up will be Scotland, a team who will have quite a bit of support behind them, but who have not really had much success on this stage. The Tartan Army have won just one of their last nine games, which is rather disappointing considering that Steve Clarke’s men had a very impressive run during qualifiers that saw them pick up five consecutive wins – including beating Spain – to qualify for the 2024 UEFA EURO competition with two games to spare.

Worryingly, Scotland, who have never gotten out of their group at a European Championship, also have not beaten Germany in any of their four most recent meetings since a shock 1-0 win over die Mannschaft back in 1999. As such, they are expected to struggle, but very well may have already written off this match with one eye on trying to nick some points off the likes of Hungary and Switzerland, the two other teams to complete Group A’s quartet.