Müller relieved as Germany outmuscle Scotland

• Two-goal Thomas Müller pleased with happy accident for Germany
• Benedikt Höwedes reckons "it was hard work" to beat Scotland
• Scotland boss Gordon Strachan calls Germany "real machines, real physical players"
• Steven Naismith proud of a gutsy Scotland performance

Thomas Müller, Germany forward
Making it 2-1 was a joy, because I know how important those three points are. I could have scored the opener with a header earlier. Football is football – you try your best, but I did not intend to place the header [for the opening goal] where it went it. I just tried to win the aerial challenge against this towering Scotsman.

Sebastian Rudy, Germany defender
It was a difficult bit of work today, but we were prepared for that. We gave a good performance at first – we could have scored a couple of goals more. I think my performance was OK given that I haven't played at right-back for a long time now.

Erik Durm, Germany defender
We were solid in defence in the first half – we did not give them much. We created a lot of chances but failed to take them. We were a lot shakier in defence [in the 4-2 friendly defeat] against Argentina [on Wednesday] – we set ourselves up better today.

Benedikt Höwedes, Germany defender
It was hard work today, a difficult win. But against a strong Scottish side, that was no less than we expected. The first half was a one-way street. In the second half, they got a bit braver, invested more in attacking and equalised. It was good that we made it 2-1 shortly afterwards.

Manuel Neuer, Germany goalkeeper
To get a win in our first game was the most important thing, and it doesn't make any difference how we did it because we played with a totally new team. We carried out our duty and that was important.

Gordon Strachan, Scotland manager
We feel disappointed for those who came here and put in that kind of work. They had to go out there against real machines, real physical players. They are bigger than us, but we stood up to it.

I thought we would win it at one stage, but in the end we have got no points. The next game [against Georgia] is a big game; we're looking forward to that challenge.

David Marshall, Scotland goalkeeper
We are gutted; we got ourselves back into it and it was disappointing to concede the second. We had to go for it and try and get points on the board in this group. They can be intimidating – they are world champions – and we could have done better in the first half, but we really went for it in the second.

Steven Naismith, Scotland forward
The performance definitely deserved something. We started more nervously than normal, but as the game wore on we played better stuff, and created as much, if not more than Germany. We had some fantastic chances and on another day would have done better. This is definitely a platform to build on.