CALLUM McGREGOR has branded Scotland’s 5-1 Euros defeat to Germany an EMBARRASSMENT.
The Celtic skipper admits he trudged off the pitch in Munich with a sense of shame.
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It was Scotland’s worst defeat in a major tournament for 70 years.
And McGregor insists Steve Clarke’s side must now show the mental strength to bounce back against Switzerland on Wednesday night.
He said: “Embarrassment is the word I was thinking after the game. I didn’t say it to anyone because it was too raw at the moment, but that’s the word I had in my head on my way off the pitch.
“You work so hard to get to this level and we don’t do ourselves justice. That’s what hurts most.
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“You can play well and still lose to Germany. Let’s make no bones about it, they’re a top team and they’ll be there or thereabouts to win it.
“But there was just a sense we didn’t do ourselves justice.
“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 and have people going into little groups.
“It’s very much like a club environment. You have to stay together, stay strong and ultimately prove people wrong.
“We had a poor performance and a poor result. The two teams we play next will smell blood.
“It’s now about what you’ve got inside. You want to put it right, so for sure the next 48 hours will be really important.
“Everyone accepts it was a humbling experience.
“But we can’t fall apart and let the whole thing turn negative because you’re never ever going to get out of it from there.
“Yes, it’s important we take the lesson, but now you have to show why you’re a professional.
“You dust yourself down, you look after each other and the objective is still there. If we win the next two, we go through.”
McGregor also backed Ryan Porteous after his first-half red card.
He added: “We’re all human beings, everyone can make mistakes in every walk of life.
“It’s an honest tackle, probably a bit too heavy for the Uefa guys, and ultimately we’re down to ten and it’s a tough night.
“None of the players will be labelling anything at him, though. We have to make sure he’s OK.
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“It’s difficult when you have disappointment in your life, you have to try to get over that.”
McGregor saw it as the opportunity of a lifetime.
Instead, it became a shameful embarrassment he will remember for the rest of his days.
The Celtic captain feels certain Scotland’s misery in Munich won’t ever leave him after their 5-1 humiliation in the Euros opener.
All he can attempt to do now is make it the beginning of the story he tells his future grandkids about the tournament — and not the end.
McGregor said: “We are the ones who have to live with that forever. People will remember that forever.
“You are a professional and you understand what has just happened.
“Now it is about trying to rectify that.
“You will never be able to rectify the result because what has happened has happened. But if you can get yourself out of the group then it diminishes.
“Then in ten or 15 years’ time people will say, ‘Yeah, but they got out of the group and they achieved something great’.
“So that is where the mindset has to be because it was a disappointing night.
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“I just know from personal experience that any of the disappointments I have had never really go away.
“You get one opportunity in life and when it comes you want to try and grab it as much as you can.
“And when you have a disappointing day in your professional life or your personal life or whatever it is, it does stick with you.
“It is important that in 14 days’ time no one is talking about this and we are through and everyone is talking about the history we have created.
“But I do think, as a professional, these things live with you.
“Like I say, you have one chance and you have to try and take it, so we are the guys who have to live with that disappointment.
“Everyone has the best intentions when you start a game.
“There’s not one player in that dressing room who is going out there not to have a good game or not to have everything go well in the way that we have spoken about all week and in the way we have tried to set the game up to look.
“Sometimes football, and life, is not perfect. You have to try and find a solution within that.
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“But it’s very, very difficult when you’re playing against a top team and concede early and the place is rocking and then it’s very difficult to get back at that point. That is why, when you start games, you have to start them well and if you don’t they can quickly get away from you.
“I think that’s a lesson for us for the next two games.”
Scotland as a team just didn’t get close to anyone in a white shirt.
Toni Kroos had the freedom of the Munich Football Arena, which was a baffling tactical decision by Clarke.
McGregor said: “I touched on us not getting close to key players in the game and that gives you a problem.
“When you’ve got top players and you don’t really make them uncomfortable and you give them an easy night then that’s what can happen. So yeah, we probably didn’t manage the game as well as we probably should have.
“Then it’s difficult when you go three down.
“The place is electric, the players are playing with big confidence — and they’re top players anyway — so when that machine starts to turn, then it’s very, very difficult to get back.
“We didn’t start the game well and once the game gets away from you, it’s then difficult to try and turn that again.
“So yeah, I think we have to hold our hands up, we got it wrong. Now it’s about trying to fix it.”
McGregor wasn’t immune from criticism.
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TV pundit Graeme Souness took aim at the Double- winning Celtic skipper for selling himself when Jamal Musiala netted Germany’s second goal.
Asked if he takes that sort of thing on board to fuel him, McGregor nodded and said: “Yes, you do.
“I think if anyone has a pop at you, you take it personally and you try and prove them wrong.”
Whatever anyone thinks of McGregor, though, he has mental strength in spades.
So when he talks of the importance of that ahead of Wednesday night’s clash with Switzerland, you hope his pals around him are listening.
He said: “It’s absolutely vital. We had so much positivity going into the first game and then you take a sore one and you have to react.
“It’s now about our strength of character as much as anything else.
“Yes, the football has to be there, that has to be the No 1 priority, but now you’ve got to stand up and show why you are a professional.
“It’s why you’re here, at this level, because we’ve got a lot of people pointing the finger at us.
“But the objective is still the same. We want to get out of the group and only we can fix that.”
It was the thousands upon thousands of Scotland fans who had paid good money to get to Germany that you had to feel sorry for on Friday night.
McGregor added: “It leaves a sour taste in the mouth when you wake up in the morning and you’ve not done yourself justice and haven’t done the country justice.
“When you get to these big tournaments you want to show people that we’re a good nation, that we’ve got good people and we’ve got good players.
“So we have to apologise to the fans for not putting on a performance that they would be proud of.
“But we’ll stick together and over the next two games we’ll try to give everybody the objective that we want.”
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