CALLUM McGregor has admitted that he and his Scotland team mates will use the savage criticism they have been subjected to in the wake of their Euro 2024 humiliation by hosts Germany as motivation to bounce back from the heavy defeat and reach the last 16.
Steve Clarke’s players were slaughtered by former players and media pundits as they crashed to a 5-1 reverse at the hands of Julian Nagelsmann’s charges in the tournament curtain raiser in the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday night.
Former Rangers manager Graeme Souness, who donned a dark blue jersey in the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals during his illustrious playing days with Liverpool, was particularly scathing in his assessment of the display on ITV.
Celtic captain McGregor was bitterly disappointed with how he and his compatriots acquitted themselves in their first Group A game and can fully understand why they have come under fire during the past 24 hours.
However, when he was asked if players use personal attacks to fire themselves up as he prepared for the meeting with Switzerland at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne on Wednesday, he said: “Yeah, you do. I think if anyone has a pop at you, you take it personally and you try and prove them wrong. So, yeah.
“This is where we have to be strong. Everybody will come at us and quite rightly so for what was a poor performance. But we can't let it derail us, we can’t let it pull us apart and have people start going into their little groups.
“It's very much like a club environment in the squad. You have to stay together, you have to stay strong and ultimately you have to prove people wrong. There is a little bit of anger there, aye.
“We had a poor performance last night and a poor result and people see that and start to smell blood. The two teams that we're going to play next will smell blood. So it's now about what you've got inside. You want to rectify that and put it right. So for sure the next 48 hours will be really important.”
