Callum McGregor responds to Graeme Souness barb as Celtic skipper vows to prove Rangers hero wrong with Euro redemption

Next Sunday, all might be forgiven, writes Keith Jackson in Germany.

By then Steve Clarke and his crestfallen players may have made history here after all, by taking four points from two remaining Group A games and doing just enough to become the most successful Scotland side in history. But even if they do go on to salvage redemption here in Germany, Callum McGregor will not allow himself to forget the pain and the suffering inflicted by Friday night’s visit to the torture chamber of the Allianz Arena.

On Saturday afternoon, after Celtic’s skipper had made it back to the squad’s Bavarian basecamp here in Garmisch-Partenkirchen following that 5-1 routing, those wounds were still very red and very raw. So much so, that McGregor’s first instinct is to believe this thrashing will still be remembered and held against them decades from now, regardless of what might follow against Switzerland and Hungary.

And even when it was suggested that it could all be consigned to the dustbin of the nation’s memory banks in as little as seven days time, depending on the next two results, McGregor couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it. He said: “I just know, from personal experience, that any of the disappointments I have had never really goes away.

“You get one opportunity in life and when it comes you want to try and grab it as much as you can. And when you have a disappointing day in your professional life or your personal life or whatever it is, it does stick with you.

“It is important that in 14 days’ time no one is talking about it. We are through to the knock-out stages and everyone is talking about the history we have created. But I think, as a professional, these things live with you. You have one chance and you have to try