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Germany produced one of the most exciting opening halves ever at the European Championship to start their campaign on the brightest note possible.
Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala, and Kai Havertz were all on the score sheet as Germany blew Scotland away with an almost-perfect performance.
How it happened
A colourful opening ceremony foretold what was to come as the sound system had barely been turned off and the dancers had scarcely gotten out of their costumes when the hosts got the crowd buzzing with the opening goal.
Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Florian Wirtz connected beautifully with Joshua Kimmich’s layoff to smash the opener past goalkeeper Angus Gunn.
Allianz Arena was still rocking as a result of that goal when Musiala, in the 19th minute, raised the roof with a fierce shot from close range that nearly tore the net in Gunn’s goal.
The evening went from worse to terrible for Scotland when centre-back Ryan Porteous was shown a straight red for an innocuous challenge in the box.
Havertz made no mistake from the resultant penalty, sending Scottish goalie Gunn the wrong way with his expertly taken kick on the stroke of halftime.
Germany took their feet slightly off the gas in the second half but Julian Nagelsmann’s men continued to pose a threat in attack.
It paid off in the substitute Niclas Füllkrug made just enough room for himself to smash an unstoppable drive into the top corner for the hosts’ fourth of the evening.
Shortly after, Füllkrug scrambled another effort into the net but VAR came to the rescue to save some Scottish blushes.
An Antonio Rüdiger own-goal provided the handful of Scottish fans in the Arena something to cheer later on but Germany had the final say with a strike from Emre Can.
However, nothing could take away a fine performance that powered Germany to one of their biggest win and condemned Scotland to their worst defeat at the Euros.
Next, Germany will take on Hungary knowing a win will be enough to qualify for the knockout round with a game to spare. Scotland, though, will target a change in fortunes when they trade tackles with Switzerland on June 19.
