Germany 2-1 Scotland: Gordon Strachan's Scots run world champions close as Ikechi Anya nets equaliser only for Thomas Muller brace to give Germans victory in opening Euro 2016 qualifier

• Scotland lose 2-1 to world champions Germany in Euro 2016 qualifier
• Watford wideman Ikechi Anya equalised for Scots following Thomas Muller's opener for Germany
• Bayern Munich frontman Muller restored German's lead in Dortmund just four minutes after Scotland leveller

Thomas Muller has an eye for a quote as well as a goal. This week the Bayern Munich attacker gave an interview to Playboy where he described football as a ‘shark tank.’

He was referring to the fear of injury when he spoke, but might have been describing his own predatory instincts.

He scored his 24th and 25th goals in 58 appearances against a Scotland side who finished the night with 10 men after an injury-time dismissal for Charlie Mulgrew.

That Muller should have been sent off himself in the dying moments was undeniable after he pulled back Steven Naismith by the neck when the Scotland striker was making a last-ditch run towards the German goal.

Such are the breaks you enjoy as world champions.

And Muller, despite his late indiscretion, is one of their brightest stars after a mere four years of international football.

Remarkably, they still regard him as a midfielder filling in at striker in Germany. But if football is a shark pool, Muller’s bite is more ferocious than most.

He scored two to break Scotland’s resistence here and his second was heartbreaking stuff. It came from poor defending at a corner just four minutes after Gordon Strachan’s team had surged back into the game with a quite superb leveller from Watford wideman Ikechi Anya leveller. Make no mistake, after 66 minutes there was a very real prospect of the unthinkable here.

Facing the world champions in Borussia Dortmund’s imposing Signal Iduna Arena – the Westfalenstadion in old money – the team in dark blue looked the likelier winners at that stage.

We should have known better.

Yet Strachan believed after Anya’s goal that his men had the chance of not just equalising but taking all three points.

‘I thought we were going to get a point, I actually thought we were going to win it at one stage.

‘We had the pace to counter attack, I believe at that point our passing was good to get that final pass in.

‘They (the Scotland team) have got to go out there against real machines, real physical players. They stood up to it. Second half we were terrific. Okay they’ re going to make chances, that was going to happen, but we played with a freedom in the second half.’

Joachim Low’s side were much changed from that which conquered the world in Brazil.

Phillip Lahm, Per Mertesacker and Miroslav Klose have retired. Bastien Schewinsteiger, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Mats Hummel and Julian Draxler were injured.

But this is Germany. The same old Germany. Always winning. Before last night they had won 11 of their last 12 opening night qualifiers for the World Cup and European Championships.

The disappointment is that they added another one to the record after a highly impressive second half performance from the Scots.

Playing Germany away in the opening game of a Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, no one expected much. But after a dominant German first half performance featuring Muller’s opener in 18 minutes, Scotland gathered their thoughts at half-time.

Naismith might have levelled in the early minutes of the second half. Should have indeed. Steven Fletcher’s introduction was key to what came next, the Sunderland player sending Anya away on goal from the halfway line.

Facing Manuel Neuer, the world’s best goalkeeper, he had time, too much time. But kept his composure to slot Scotland level amidst incredible scenes.

It couldn’t last of course. The shark had his pound of flesh, Muller thumping high into the net four minutes later. For Scotland he was a persistent menace.

In the opening 20 minutes the attacker was permitted no fewer than three clear headers at goal.

He failed with the first two. He was never likely to waste a third.

In eight minutes an Erik Durm cross found the striker completely unmarked in the six-yard box, finding space between Steven Whittaker and Grant Hanley to plant his header three yards wide.

The visitors failed to learn their lesson. Muller had another clear header within seconds, failing to make proper contact before he made the breakthrough in 18 minutes.

This time the cross came from the right side from Sebastian Rudy, one of the new faces, and seemed to hang in the air, Muller launching himself at a header with his back to goal, the ball dropping over David Marshall into the corner of the net.

The pity was that the German opener came just as the Scots showed some signs of settling into the game.

In the 13th minute Anya – who played out of his skin here - twisted and turned the right back Jerome Boateng in the corner, skipping along the byeline to cut the ball back for James Morrison.

The West Brom attacker raised his head and slid the ball square for Barry Bannan, the winger’s left foot shot deflecting wide for a corner.

Within a minute the Scots believed they had scored a sensational goal, a Charlie Mulgrew angled half volley cracking off the inside of the post and away to safety as the assistant blew for a narrow offside.

What germs of comfort Scotland could take from this were painfully short lived, however. Bayern’s Muller made sure of that.

For the Scots, the first half became a grim battle to stay in the game.

In 26 minutes Marco Reus almost buried them, a right foot shot brilliantly pushed away by Marshall at the last, Chelsea’s Andre Schurrle trying to stroke the rebound into the net from an angle before Hanley thumped it clear in panicked fashion.

The Scots clung on as long as they could. At times it was desperate, seat of the pants stuff.

Germany almost claimed a second in 43 minutes, Schurrle ghosting onto a piercing ball through the Scots rearguard to find space, his low cutback flicked towards goal by Reus before Marshall clawed the ball off the line with his outstretched left paw.

Simply reaching half-time one goal down was an achievement for Strachan’s team. They gathered their thoughts and reorganised. Naismith needed more support, that much was clear. 

Finding support for the Everton player was proving a problem for the Scots. And wiithin two minutes of the restart the situation was almost remedied in quite stunning fashion.

Collecting the ball on the halfway line against a backtracking German defence Alan Hutton started running and, as he does, kept going.

He made it to the 18 yard box where his low centre to Naismith was brilliantly taken by the ex-Rangers man who had one, maybe two chances to hit it. But he held on, probably a second too late, and dragged his low shot across the face of goal just inches wide of Neuer’s right hand post.

The Goodison striker had another chance in 58 minutes, moments after Strachan made a bold double change, replacing Bannan and skipper Darren Fletcher with Steven Fletcher and James McArthur.

Anya made headway on the left touchline, throwing over an enticing, inviting cross which ran across the face of the German backline to Naismith.

He simply couldn’t get over it, the ball soaring high into the stand behind the goal.

But the game had markedly changed. Scotland, now, were in the contest. The German home crowd, intimidating in the first half, were still and silent.

The roars of the Tartan Army, 8,000 strong, soared over this arena as soon as Fletcher’s ball sent Anya clear to score the goal of his life. He might never score one better.

And yet. This was Germany.

Marshall, preferred to Allan McGregor, justified that decision with a string of fine saves here. The Cardiff man had a very decent night. He had to.

He blocked Reus with his legs, but was entitled to be bitterly disappointed with Muller’s second goal in 70 minutes.

A Reus corner bobbled around in the area, McArthur making an unconvincing slash at clearing before the ball landed perfectly for the marksman to thump high into the net.

There were no mass scenes of arch celebration at time up. Only anger from Scotland players after Mulgrew was shown two yellow cards in the dying moments, the first for a bad foul on Reus and the second for kicking the ball away in frustration.

The Scots were unhappy with the Norwegian referee over that and the chronic lack of injury time. There was anger, too, at Muller escaping with a yellow for almost throttling Naismith on his late break.

Make no mistake, Germany expected to win this game. Whether they expected to do so with this degree of difficulty is another question.