FOX Soccer NOW: Does rout of Scotland indicate that Germany is back?

Germany scored early and often in throttling Scotland, 5-1, in the first game of Euro 2024 on Friday.

Florian Witz got the party started for Germany in the 10th minute with an emphatic goal, with Jamal Musiala following up with a power goal of his own in the 19th minute. Later in the first half, Kai Havertz knocked through a penalty shot, while Niclas Fullkrug came off the bench for a goal in the second half and Emre Can scored in the final minute of play. Scotland’s lone goal came on an own goal by Germany late in the second half.

All in all, Germany out-passed Scotland a whopping 629-183, while holding their opponents without a shot attempt. Germany attempted 21 shots, 12 coming on goal.

On the latest edition of “FOX Soccer NOW,” Melissa Ortiz expressed that she wasn’t stunned by Germany’s scorching start.

“Absolutely not surprised,” Ortiz said about whether she was surprised by Germany. “We talked about it in the pre-match, as well, how important Toni Kroos is on this team, and stats prove that he completed 101 of 102 passes alone. Him and Jamal Musiala, he was so effective, as well. He completed the most dribbles compared to any other player.”

Germany is tied with France for the second-best odds to win the tournament at +390, behind only England at +350.

“We were a little bit nervous because they’ve [Germany] had a lack of recent success in the World Cup. They got knocked out of the last two World Cups in the Group Stages. They got knocked out in the Round-of-16 in the last Euros by England, 2-0, and just didn’t seem to have that same type of confidence that we’ve seen from the Germans in the past, but today I thought was a different ball of wax,” Jimmy Conrad opined.

Stu Holden thinks the blowout win is a monkey off the Germans’ back.

“I think for Germany, one of the hardest things as the host is when you think about that first game and all the lead-up and the build-up from even when the game is announced and the tournament being announced in Germany and then how bad they’ve been in recent tournaments, that’s basically a perfect game there from [Germany manager] Julian Nagelsmann,” Holden said. “You conceded the goal, so you can still go in and shout and yell and be like ‘hey, how did we concede and not get a clean sheet?’ 

“They had Musiala on the score-sheet, Wirtz on the score-sheet, Fullkrug, Havertz, basically everybody along the front line. Home fans are happy. Optimism builds. That’s a perfect first game for Germany.”

Germany’s next action in Group A comes on June 19, when it faces off against Hungary (12 p.m. ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports app). It then faces Switzerland on June 23 (3 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]

---

---