Criticised for a meek surrender against Germany in their opening Euro 2024 game, Scotland manager Steve Clarke said his players rediscovered their warrior spirit in a thrilling 1-1 draw with Switzerland on Wednesday.

Scotland went ahead early in Cologne through Scott McTominay, only for Xherdan Shaqiri to score a sensational equaliser soon after and both sides could have won a gripping clash with Grant Hanley hitting the post for Scotland.

It was the sort of hearts on sleeves display the Tartan Army had demanded after the 5-1 capitulation to the tournament hosts in Munich and Clarke said the performance was much more like what he had come to expect from his team.

“They’re going to feel a lot better going into the next game on the back of that kind of performance, which is what we are,” Clarke told reporters on Thursday.

“This is how we play, how we work.

“We’ve shown that as well as the aggression and the fight and the dirty side of the game, if you like, we can play. They ran themselves into the ground against a very good side.”

All the gloom of last Friday was erased as Scotland rewarded the raucous support of their travelling fans with the sort of battling display that took them through the qualifying campaign.

Third-placed Scotland will go into Sunday’s final Group A game against Hungary knowing a victory would give them every chance of reaching the knockout stage of a tournament for the first time, having fallen at the group phase on 11 occasions.

Switzerland’s Fabian Schar suffered a broken nose on Wednesday, compounding what was already a rough night.

“My nose is broken,” Schar told Swiss broadcaster Blue Sport.

“There were a lots of tackles and duels, as we expected. They made it extremely difficult for us.”