Captain Andy Robertson says Scotland are seeking to make history by qualifying for the knockout stages and spoil Germany’s Euro 2024 opening party.
The 30-year-old Liverpool left-back will lead his side out in Munich on Friday night (8pm kick-off BST) for the opening game of Group A, which also includes Hungary and Switzerland.
“We’ve waited a long time or this game, it feels as if it’s been years and years coming,” he told a pre-match press conference.” We know how much of a challenge it’s going to be, one more sleep and we’ll be ready come kick-off.
“I don’t really think about my emotions too much. I feel the same as the rest of the boys. I feel immensely proud and very excited as well.”
🏴 Skipper#GERSCO | #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/wiGhxvBSMN
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 13, 2024
Robertson is wary of the threat of the host nation – three time winners and four-time World Cup winners – but said his side are capable of shocking the world.
“It’s important we show up to our maximum and if we do that we can create a bit of history,” he said.
“Tomorrow night we are playing a team full of quality, in front of their home fans, but it’s a challenge we’re excited for.
“We expect a lot from ourselves and hopefully we can do that on the pitch.”
With up to 1000,000 Scots expected in Germany for the opening week, Robertson added: “We know there’s a lot of fans over here and we hope to make them proud. We know not all of them can get in the stadium, we wish they could, it would help us out.
“We can’t do it without the support and we hope they enjoy themselves. Hopefully we can give them something to shout about and they can stay in Germany a little bit longer.”
Scotland have qualified for successive European Championships but have still never reached the knockouts at a major tournament, something which Robertson wants to put right.
He said: “The first Euros was massive for us, now we want to compete. Last time we felt in the England game (a 0-0 draw at Wembley in Group D) we did pretty well but let ourselves down in the others.
“We don’t want to have any regrets this time. What’s the worst that can happen? We go into a long list of teams that haven’t made it out the group or we put ourselves in a good position to be a team to make history.
“We’re excited by the challenge, we’re excited about what’s ahead and if we perform the way I know we can perform then I’m confident we can make history.”
Though they qualified in some style, Scotland have won only once in their last nine games, a 2-0 slog against Gibraltar in their penultimate warm-up game last week.
Robertson admitted: “When you look at results up and down the board, I think every team will need to step up.
“You can’t recreate competitive football. After we qualified we probably took a little bit of a drop which shouldn’t happen but it did.
“But now we’re ready, you get no bigger stage than this. Tomorrow night all eyes will be on us against Germany and it’s time to show what we can do.
“Of course we need to step it up but all nations are in the exact same boat.”
💙 Good to have Lyndon with us, ready for our journey to Munich.#GERSCO | #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/YlI5XEsnpl
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 13, 2024
Robertson admitted losing main forward Lyndon Dykes to injury on the eve of the tournament had dealt the squad a blow but revealed the QPR frontman will remain with the group in Germany, adding: “It’s great to have him here. The day he got his injury was difficult for the whole squad.
“But now that he’s here as a fan, as a staff member probably, it’s great. He’s very important off the pitch as well because not many could have done that with the emotions he’s gone through in the last few weeks.
“We’d love him to be on the pitch but unfortunately that wasn’t possible. He’ll be a big factor for us and hopefully he can stay with us the whole time.”
Robertson revealed he has also shrugged off a nagging injury sustained on Liverpool duty, saying he feels: “Physically good, mentally good, looking forward to what’s ahead. I had an ankle injury from March and I’ve been nursing it a little bit from then on.
“It’s all good now, we were pretty relaxed about the whole situation but I’m all good to go. Mentally, physically we’re all ready and come kick-off we’ll be 100%.”
