Steve Clarke says he and his Scottish team are “just like everyone else” and “disappointed” with the way their 2024 Euro campaign is going.

Scotland failed to win a single game and, despite a highly impressive qualification, did not make it past the group stage in Germany.

Head coach Clarke, speaking for the first time since Scotland’s 1-0 defeat to Hungary that sent them out, said it was “just not our tournament”.

After announcing his squad for next month’s Nations League matches against Poland and Portugal, he added: “We are all disappointed that we did not achieve what we wanted to achieve in the tournament.”

“There will always be criticism if you don’t achieve your goals. If all the criticism is directed at me, that’s fine, I can handle it.”

“I think you have to look at the preparation for the tournament. It didn’t go smoothly, many players were injured, even in the training camp we lost a lot of players and we showed that we are not as strong when we are missing one or two key players as when we have them in the team.”

Given Scotland’s strong qualifying campaign, which saw them beat eventual winners Spain at Hampden, hopes were high that Clarke’s team could advance past the group stage for the first time.

The failure to do so was criticized, but Clarke said he took it as a compliment.

“It means that my team, I and the players have done a really good job of raising expectations,” he added.

“When I took the job we hadn’t been to a tournament for over 20 years, now we’ve been to two of the last three, so we must have done something right.

“If the expectation today is to qualify for the tournament and get through the group stage, then we will try to do the same in 2026.”