While Scotland’s European Championship was firmly in the anti-climactic category, the same could be said for their first Nations League opponents.
Poland were the last team to qualify for Euro 2024 and they were the first to go out, two days before Steve Clarke and his players exited to the not-so-sweet sounds of a Bavarian oompah band ringing in their ears.
Of course, Poland were in arguably the toughest section of the lot.
They were humbled by Austria in Berlin, making it back-to-back defeats after a heartbreaking late loss of their own against the Dutch.
That they held France to a draw in their final game made no difference. They, like Scotland, were heading home to face their own music.
In truth, Michal Probierz’s side have been struggling for answers for a while now.
They scraped into Germany by virtue of a penalty shoot-out play-off victory over Wales in Cardiff that came off the back of a disjointed and chaotic qualifying campaign during which they lost to group winners Albania and minnows Moldova.
Experienced coach Fernando Santos paid with his job and was replaced with former under-21 coach Probierz.
They won just three of their 10 matches in that section yet reached the finals.
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