'Still possible': Lawrence Shankland discusses Scotland Euro 2024 hopes ahead of Switzerland clash

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Scotland’s Euro 2024 opener could not have gone much worse after they were handed a crushing 5-1 defeat in front of Germany’s home support in Munich. Steve Clarke’s side struggled to handle the tournament hosts, who made easy work of an almost-perfect opener at the Allianz Arena.

The match had a lot to dissect, including a red card for Ryan Porteous and the resulting penalty, plus a Germany own goal to give the travelling Scots something to cheer about. And while it was a brutal blow to take in their opening game, it’s not over for the Tartan Army.

Clarke already identified ahead of the tournament that four points is often enough to see a team through the group stages, and that’s exactly what his side are now gunning for. Scotland will need to put their defeat to Germany behind them and focus on their next opponents.

Switzerland await on Wednesday following their 3-1 win over Hungary. Even if the Scots don’t finish second in Group A, they are still in with a chance of progressing to the knockouts as four of the best third-placed teams from the groups will also advance to the next round, so there’s plenty left to play for.

Hearts star Lawrence Shankland is looking ahead to Scotland’s clash with the Swiss, which will take place at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne.

“We’ve obviously got that initial hurt after the game but we need to very quickly get on with it, especially in tournament football with those games coming thick and fast. The last couple of days have been spent analysing what went wrong and trying to make things better,” the forward told the Scotland National Team official account.

“There are a lot of good characters in the changing room and we’ve seen that in the last couple of days, everybody’s had to lift each other. But it wasn’t too long after that we managed to see some smiles on faces again, so it’s important that we support each other and move on positively.”

Shankland has attracted attention from numerous clubs in recent months thanks to his red hot form with Hearts during the last two seasons. In 2022/23, the 28-year-old tallied 28 goals across all competitions and went on to better that amount last campaign with a whopping 31 goals and eight assists thrown in for good measure.

Shankland was brought on as a late substitute against Germany as Clarke opted for Che Adams up front instead. However, as they return to the drawing board following their defeat, the Hearts skipper could get more time on the pitch against Switzerland to make an impact.

“It’s an honour to be involved in the national team at a major tournament, it’s all the stuff you dream of as a kid growing up so I’m just delighted to be here and hopefully we can go on and finish it,” Shankland said. “We knew that we would probably need four points or more to guarantee qualification or give us a good chance anyway, that’s still possible so that’s the important thing and what everybody is focusing on.”