Barcelona’s Ilkay Gündogan was one of the shining stars of Germany’s very impressive start to Euro 2024 as the hosts put on a show in front of the home crowd in Munich with a 5-1 demolition of Scotland in Friday’s tournament opener. Kicking off #EURO2024 in style ❤️ #DFB #GermanFootball #GermanMNT #EURO2024 #GERSCO DFB/ Philipp Reinhard pic.twitter.
com/q0SEf64EZf — German Football (@DFB_Team_EN) June 14, 2024 Gündogan was quite simply fantastic in the opening 45 minutes, causing all kinds of havoc with his movements in the final third as the Germans were already up two goals after just 20 minutes thanks to goals from Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, with Musiala’s strike coming at the end of a move that started with a gorgeous turn and pass by Gündogan. Scotland made a formation change to try and limit the Barça man, but the German captain still made a key contribution just before halftime as he was on the receiving end of a horror tackle by Ryan Porteous that resulted in a straight red card for the Scottish center-back and a penalty for the home team, which Havertz converted with ease to triple the hosts’ lead. Gündogan was very lucky to somehow avoid any type of injury on the play, and his brilliant performance had helped the hosts already wrap up the victory against a helpless 10-man Scotland by the break.
Germany remained in full control to start the second half and continued to attack looking to add to their lead, and Gündogan was once again i.