Andy Robertson lamented the "hugely disappointing" Euro 2024 performance that led to his side's 5-1 defeat to Germany in Munich.
The Scotland national team captain praised the host's quality in all areas of the big from the first to the final whistle, but said he and his teammates must dust themselves down and react ahead of their next Group A game on Wednesday against Switzerland.
Speaking immediately after the opening match of Euro 2024, Robertson said: "First half we got it all wrong, really. We didn't really show up, we weren't aggressive enough, let good players on the ball.
"They obviously had a game plan, like we did, but their game plan worked a million times better than ours. It wasn't because of the practice, it was that we didn't put it together on the pitch. When big occasions like this come along, you have to do that, and unfortunately we didn't do that in the first half.
"Second half we were down to 10 men and I thought the lads dug in really well, to be fair to them. We lost a sloppy goal at the end, but you could have drawn the second half. But it's no consolation.
"We're well backed over here, we know that, we've got so many good supporters. And, yeah, today was hugely disappointing. But you're playing against the host nation, it's the first game, and you don't get much tougher than that."
Robertson said the Scotland players will take Saturday to reflect on the match as a whole, allow themselves to be momentarily disappointed, and then kickstart their preparations for Wednesday's game against Switzerland in their bid to react and get points on the board in Group A moving forward.
He added: "We have to bounce back quickly because there were a lot of things wrong about today, but it's a quick turnaround and we have to sort it for Tuesday.
"Maybe [tonight] is a reminder about how tough this tournament is. The last time it was a lot different, and this time you're playing against world class teams – and they showed that today.
"Their big players showed up. They were excellent all over the park and made it really difficult for us. They had an answer for everything we had. We didn't play to our maximum and you have to do that against the Pot One teams.
"We need to dust ourselves down. We've got five days to sort ourselves out and go again, and it'll be another tough test against Switzerland. We'll take tomorrow to be angry at ourselves and disappointed, and then come Sunday and need to be positive and go again."
