Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Robbie Hanratty

Andy Robertson apologises to Tartan Army after Scotland's Euro 2024 exit confirmed

Andy Robertson has told the nation he is "sorry for letting them down" after Scotland crashed out of Euro 2024 in devastating fashion at the Stuttgart Arena.

Steve Clarke's men dominated possession for large spells in their Group A finale without really penetrating the opposition goal. 

But Scotland allowed their counterparts to grow into the game during the final exchanges, after 10 minutes were added due to a nasty collision, and it was Kevin Csoboth who provided the ultimate sucker punch on the counter-attack to keep Hungary's dream alive with only seconds remaining. 

Robertson had been replaced by the time the winner was scored but he couldn't help but apologise to the Tartan Army, who had descended on Germany in unprecedented numbers over the past 10 days.

"Tonight's devastating," the Scotland captain admitted. "There's no buttering it up, all the lads are absolutely gutted but it's up to us to us to pick them up and that will only happen slowly but surely. 

"But what I will say is thank you to the country because we felt everyone behind us and we knew the excitement back home and yeah, sorry for letting you down.

"We gave everything. We knew we had to win this game, both teams had to win, and they've hit us on the counter-attack. We've had a chance there (with Grant Hanley) and I think it could've went either way. That's football, that's how it goes and yeah, it will take a long time to get over this one."

Scotland rolled the changes in the second half with Lawrence Shankland posing a real threat to the Hungary defence when he was introduced. While Stuart Armstrong and Lewis Morgan got their first minutes of the tournament. 

Robertson states that was always the plan to utilise the bench to Scotland's advantage, and is gutted that the outcome swung the opposite way to send him packing. 

"We had a lot of possession first half without really doing anything with it but we were in control," he continued. "We controlled the game, we were passing the ball really well, but we just had to find that cutting edge.

"We knew there was going to be a point in the game where we could go for it and bring on the players that we had on the bench to kind of go for it that wee bit more. Bring on Armstrong, Christie, Shankland, Morgan, and yeah we did go for it but look, we got sucker punched at the end.

"A draw wasn't going to be enough realistically so both teams had to go for it and unfortunately one team had to lose.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.