Billy Gilmour was just a youngster when he was given a baptism of fire at EURO2020 against England at Wembley three years ago for Scotland.
It was a successful inaugural opening competitive cap for the then-Brighton midfielder, and there’s a tangible difference in maturity three years on.
Now, he hopes to get the nod from Scotland head coach Steve Clarke in Friday evening’s curtain raiser against Germany and test himself against Toni Kroos in midfield.
He said: “Toni Kroos is unbelievable, you see what he’s done in the game, to test myself against him would be a great opportunity.”
Despite that maturity both on and off the park, Gilmour still had the corresponding media in fits on three occasions – but had such a calming presence that shows how far the 23-year-old has come, despite a few long-term injuries during that time.
He added: “I think the last time, it was a 26-man squad so I got a bit lucky getting called in and to be a part of the squad, [so] to be part of the group for this tournament is good and hopefully we can make it one to remember.”
Embed from Getty Images“It’s up to the manager to decide his starting eleven, it would be amazing to get the opportunity but we’ll see what happens.”
“I’ve matured a lot, I was a young kid at the EUROs the last time, I’ve grown up a bit. England was my first competitive game and it was a great game for us all; the group we have this time is tough.”
In Munich on Friday against Julian Nagelsmann’s die Mannschaft, the expectations are going to be heavily against the Scots – but with 200,000 members of the Tartan Army expected to descend on Germany over the next 48 hours, Gilmour wants Scotland to embrace the atmosphere.
He said: “I think we all know it’s going to be an amazing night, the atmosphere is going to be incredible and we’ll try and get used to the atmosphere as soon as possible.”
“This season’s been good, playing the majority of games and it’s probably the first season I’ve played back-to-back. I’m grateful for the opportunity, I just want to keep pushing myself.”
Scotland, under Clarke’s tenure, have been renowned for having a club-like environment and the opening quarter-hour of training sessions made available to the media feature plenty of fun and games.
But once the cameras are away, it’s serious – and Gilmour admits both Andy Robertson and John McGinn are good at leading the group both through humour and graft.
He added: “In the warm-up, there’s groups of seven and you have to do press-ups as a punishment! The lads know when to have a bit of fun – we all met up for a golf day before we met for camp. Robertson and McGinn are good at leading the group.”
“Darts has been a recent thing! Zander Clark, Angus Gunn and Liam Kelly are good – the goalkeepers, shock! Robertson and Greg Taylor are both good at golf but we all have a competitive nature within the squad.”
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