A normally stoic Clarke was in confident form at the Allianz Arena as he fielded questions in a packed media conference.
The Scotland manager was asked about the enormity of opening the tournament against the hosts, and said: “It’s a bit of a sideshow and hopefully we don’t get too caught up in that. It’s a difficult game.
“One of the mantras I’ve had is respect everyone and fear no-one. We know they’re a good team but hopefully we can show everyone we’re a good team as well.”
Scotland fans were given a scare at the start of the week as captain Robertson was filmed leaving training early.
However, Clarke says his team are “flying”, fully fit, and ready to go.
“I think we should all be proud that we’re here,” he added. “It’s been a long time since 1998 when we actually travelled abroad to appear in a tournament like this.
“We’re proud we’ve been able to do back-to-back tournaments and hopefully by the end of this we’ll be even more proud at having done something a bit more special.”