Scotland began their journey home from Germany on Monday afternoon to the accompaniment of a Bavarian band following their exit from Euro 2024.
Steve Clarke’s side lost 1-0 to Hungary in Stuttgart on Sunday to leave them bottom of Group A with one point from three matches, following a 5-1 opening game thrashing by host country Germany and a 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
Scotland were given a memorable reception by the locals and the band when they arrived at their training base in Garmisch-Partenkirchen just over two weeks ago but the performances and results did not match the quality of the welcome.
Callum McGregor, Angus Gunn, Scott McTominay, Che Adams, Tommy Conway and John McGinn made their own travel arrangements as the management, staff and remaining players departed by coach, with boss Clarke leaving with a souvenir bear as the band returned to add some music to the farewell.
The Tartan Army made a positive impression on the locals in Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart but the team fell short and added to the negative statistic around Scotland’s record on tournament.
The national men’s side have never reached the knockout stages of a major tournament in 12 attempts and have not won a game in the last three tournament appearances – the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2020 and Euro 2024.
Clarke and his squad will have to regroup for the Nations League Group A campaign which begins in September.
Scotland scored only two goals in three games in Germany, an own goal against the hosts and a deflected McTominay strike against the Swiss.
According to UEFA’s official stats, the Scots had 16 attempts on goal with three on target over the three games which is the worst record in the tournament.
The lack of a threat frustrated many fans – and midfielder Kenny McLean.
The Norwich playmaker, who came on as a second-half substitute, said: “We are always going to find problems and come up against situations but we need to find the answers.
“It is obviously difficult to speak now, we have just been put out the competition but we will definitely look back and see what we can do.
“We are obviously frustrated with the situation as well.
“We would have liked to have had more shots on target, more goals, of course we would have.
“We gave everything, that’s what I can say. We gave everything, just unfortunately it wasn’t enough.
“When results aren’t there, there’s going to be concerns. We know we have the quality, that’s the thing.
“We didn’t find enough moments in matches to get the results we needed but we gave everything.
“It was obviously a tough night for everyone here, everyone back home and it will take a bit of time to get over.
“The game was in the balance for 90 minutes, one goal was going to be the difference.
“We got a bit desperate and committed too many bodies forward and left ourselves exposed at the back, which we didn’t fully have to do.
“The point would have been better but we would have left too much to chance had we played for a draw but hindsight is obviously good and to go for the result was the right thing to do.”