After years of preparation and eager anticipation from football fans Germany and Scotland will play the Euro opening game in Munich on Friday. Going into the game, both sides have faced setbacks in recent weeks. Scotland will be regarded the underdog by many.
Scotland lost one of their main strikers during the preparation for the tournament in Germany. Lyndon Dykes left the training pitch with a leg injury on 2 June and was forced to leave the Tartan Army camp. As his replacement manager Steve Clark called up New York Red Bulls striker Lewis Morgan.
Scotland’s friendly against Gibraltar on 3 June was somewhat underwhelming. They managed to beat the number 203 on the FIFA ranking with a rather unconvining two goal difference. Last week Steve Clark’s men performed slightly better during their friendly against Finland, but they could not get more than a 2-2 draw.
The Germans have faced some injury troubles as well. Leroy Sane remains unfit after a pubic bone injury. The star winger has only recently restarted training. Today the Germans also saw Aleksandar Pavlovic call off with an infection. The talented 20-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder suffered tonsillitis. German manager Julian Nagelsmann called up veteran midfielder Emre Can in his stead.
Earlier this month Die Nationalmannschaft managed to draw against Ukraine. The draw was followed by a slightly more convincing 2-1 win against Greece. A last minute goal by Pascal Groß made the difference.
Overall Scotland can be regarded as the firm underdogs for the 8:00 PM Euro opening game. The home side go into the game as number 16 on the global FIFA ranking, while Scotland can be found a few rows lower on the list as number 39. In the past decade the countries met twice competitively, both of those meetings were won by the Germans. More hopeful for the Tartan Army is that in the past century they beat Germany 8 times, drawed 5 times and lost 4 times.
In group A of the European Championship Scotland will also face Switzerland on 19 June and Hungary on 23 June. The top two teams from each group along with the best four third-placed teams will move on to the round of 16. Winners of the round of 16 will move on to the quarter-finals followed by the semi-finals, and ultimately the Euro 2024 final.
