Germany took just seven seconds to hand out an ominous warning to Scotland ahead of the Euro 2024 opener this summer as they strolled to a hugely impressive win in Lyon.
The Euros host nation had been toiling with only three wins in 11 last year and that prompted manager Julian Nagelsmann to make big changes.
The biggest one was the return of 34-year-old midfielder Toni Kroos three years after retiring from international football and the Real Madrid legend ran the show last night in the backyard of the World Cup runners-up.
He provided an assist to Florian Wirtz to strike an incredible opener just seven seconds after kick-off.
Then Arsenal ace Kai Havertz doubled the advantage at the start of the second half.
This was no fluke. Germany dominated possession for long spells and were excellent going forward. They also counter-attacked at speed and could and should have won by more.
Defensively, they had struggled recently, but were strong last night against Kylian Mbappe and co..
As expected, Nagelsmann put Kroos back into the team in a holding role with Bayer Leverkusen's Robert Andrich, who was winning just his second cap.
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That meant Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich was shunted out to right back in a four-man defence with Real Madrid's Antonio Rudiger and Bayer Leverkusen's Jonathan Tah in the middle and a debut for Stuttgart left back Maximilian Mittelstadt, who was excellent.
Gunners ace Havertz led the line with Wirtz being the third player from Bundesliga leaders Leverkusen in the team behind him, along with Barcelona ace Ilkay Gundogan and Bayern's Jamal Musiala making it a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was in goal after Manuel Neuer tore a thigh muscle this week.
The hosts held a classy minute's silence for the passing of German legends Franz Beckenbauer and Andreas Brehme before the game and the Kaiser would certainly have approved of a quite sensational goal when they scored after just seven seconds.
Kick-off was passed back to Kroos and the man who had been missing for three years internationally pinged the ball forward to Wirtz in the middle of the French half. He was given the freedom of the Groupama Arena to stride forward before launching a glorious shot past stunned Lens keeper Brice Samba who didn't even move.
Steve Clarke will be hoping to avoid such a nightmare start on June 14.
Remarkably, Germany made another brilliant start to the second half too and doubled their advantage four minutes after the restart when Musiala sprang the French offside trap, rounded the keeper from a tight angle and cut the ball back to the onrushing Havertz who easily scored.
Germany were well-organised and defensively solid. And worryingly for Scotland, reports of Die Mannschaft's demise looked last night like they had been greatly exaggerated.
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