Germany reach last 16 as Scotland draw with Switzerland and Albania hold Croatia

Scotland and Albania kept their hopes alive with hard-fought draws.

Ilkay Gundogan, left, was Germany’s key man (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP) (AP)

Germany became the first side to make it to the knockout stage at Euro 2024 as Jamal Musiala and Ilkay Gundogan fired them to a 2-0 Group A victory over Hungary.

Musiala opened the scoring with his second goal of the tournament before Gundogan killed off hopes of a Hungarian fightback on a day when Julian Nagelsmann’s men were made to work for the three points in Stuttgart.

Roland Sallai saw a close-range header ruled out for offside at 1-0 and Joshua Kimmich had to clear Willi Orban’s last-minute strike off the line but the hosts will go into their final group game against Switzerland with qualification already secured.

Group rivals Scotland boosted their chances of making the last-16 thanks to a hard-fought draw with Switzerland.

Steve Clarke’s men bounced back from their 5-1 mauling by the Germans and victory over Hungary on Sunday would give them a good chance of going through as one of the four best third-placed teams.

Midfielder Scott McTominay got the Scots off to the perfect start when Swiss defender Fabian Schar deflected his 13th-minute shot into his own net.

However, joy was replaced by despair in the 26th minute when Xherdan Shaqiri took advantage of Anthony Ralston’s error to level with a stunning finish.

Defender Grant Hanley hit the woodwork during a tense finish but Switzerland saw two goals correctly ruled out for offside as Scotland struggled at the back.

In Group B, Klaus Gjasula went from zero to hero as Albania left it late to secure a dramatic 2-2 draw with Croatia.

The Albanians led through Qazim Laci’s early goal but went into stoppage time trailing 2-1 after Andrej Kramaric equalised and Gjasula bundled the ball into his own net inside three second-half minutes.

However, the substitute redeemed himself in style five minutes into added time when he fired past keeper Dominik Livakovic to stun Croatia and leave both teams on one point ahead of their final group match.