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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Jonny McFarlane

Angus Gunn admits simmering Germany 'anger' fuelled excellent Cologne display

Faced with a deluge of criticism for his part in Germany's first and fifth goals in a 5-1 opening day loss, Angus Gunn chose to channel the negativity into a positive.

The Norwich keeper managed to get his hand to both strikes by Florian Wirtz and Emre Can but was unable to keep the ball out of the net.

He recovered to perform strongly in the 1-1 draw with Switzerland that keeps Scotland's hope of qualifying from Group A alive and kicking, making some crucial saves, most impressively from Dan Ndoye.

And the keeper revealed it was channelling the simmering residual frustration from Munich that inspired him to bounce back in such emphatic style.

"The manager said all along is that making saves is what the goalkeeper has to do. I think I did well and one of them didn't get seen because it was a goal kick but I'm sure they showed the replays on TV.

"Not just me, but everyone felt we didn't do ourselves justice against Germany,," he said. "I carried a lot of anger into the game tonight from that game. I tried to use that in a positive way and I think everyone on the pitch showed that. We need to take that into the next game."

"The game on Friday was embarrassing for all of us, in front of the fans and our families so we had to show a reaction. I feel like we did that very well."


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If Germany was an error-strewn display where Scotland didn't turn up, the showing in Switzerland was several tiers above. While still far from perfect, the gush of mistakes were largely reduced to a trickle. Ultimately it's just a shame that Switzerland have a player who can punish even the smallest of mistakes.

"We did really well in limiting errors tonight. Unfortunately, a player like Xherdan Shaqiri has got the quality and to be fair to him it was an unbelievable finish. I thought we reacted well, got to half-time, regrouped, were a lot more positive in the second half and nearly got the win in the end."

It was Tony Ralston's slack back pass that presented the half-chance to the Swiss striker that he took with aplomb, leaving Gunn with no chance. The defender didn't have the best of games but improved as proceedings went on.

"Anthony showed great mental strength and played a great second half," Gunn stated. He was cramping up after 75 minutes but finished the game off so full credit to him. He's a big player for us and to show that resilience in the game, we have to show that in the next game to get to the next stages."

With one Group A match left against Hungary, Scotland know that a win should be enough to qualify to the knock-out round of a major tournament for the first time in their history. Steve Clarke and his players know they can make themselves unassailable Scotland legends should they deliver three points on Sunday night. It's a proposition they surely would have snapped hands off for before the tournament started.

Gunn said: "We would have liked to get more points on the board earlier but to be in with a chance going into the last game gives us great belief that we can go down there and get the win. If we played the way we did tonight we will have a great chance.

"These three games are the biggest of our careers because we know we can create history and we know this one on Sunday is going to be that. Hopefully, we can get the win for the country, for ourselves and our families and make everyone proud."

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