Soccer

Andy Robertson urges Scotland to trust as they seek response to Germany humbling

Steve Clarke’s side were beaten 5-1 by the Euro 2024 hosts.

Scotland captain Andrew Robertson looking for revival
Scotland captain Andrew Robertson looking for revival (Martin Rickett/PA)

Captain Andy Robertson wants a return of trust to Scotland’s make-up as they look revive Euro 2024 hopes against Switzerland on Wednesday night.

Steve Clarke’s side were hammered 5-1 by host country Germany in their opening Group A fixture in Munich on Friday night and the defeat has left their campaign in a precarious position.

Scotland have won one game in 10 – a friendly against Gibraltar – going into the game against the Swiss, who were worthy 3-1 winners over Hungary in their opening game.

Kai Havertz, bottom, celebrates his goal against Scotland
Kai Havertz, bottom, celebrates his goal against Scotland (Andrew Milligan/PA)

It seems a long time since Scotland beat Spain and Norway in qualification – March and June of last year respectively – but Robertson wants a return of the trust that underpinned a second successive Euros berth.

The Liverpool left-back said: “We need to get back to being us. We definitely weren’t ourselves on Friday.

“We need to realise what got us results in the past and what we were good at. The message off the pitch hasn’t changed.

“We need to trust each other and if we do that we will be a better team for it. You saw that in abundance in the qualifying campaign – a team full of belief.

“Maybe we played with a wee bit of fear on Friday which we didn’t want. It’s easy to talk about it and harder to put in place. It’s not easy to start against the home country, let me tell you.

“We had enough experience on the pitch to do better. We have a big game coming up and we are all excited about. We want to show this tournament what Scotland is all about.

Robertson speaks to manager Steve Clarke after defeat to Germany
Robertson speaks to manager Steve Clarke after defeat to Germany (Andrew Milligan/PA)

“I said to all the lads I’d give them until Saturday dinner time to get over what they felt, any anger they were feeling at that time, then it was time to move on and draw a line under it.

“The manager had a meeting on the stuff we didn’t do well and the stuff we had to improve.

“We had a couple of discussions around certain clips. We always have those discussions, they were had and it was time to draw a line under it.

“We know we have to do better. That’s what our full focus is on.”