Billy Gilmour claims Scotland can STUN Germany in Euro 2024 opener in Munich… as Brighton midfielder says he’s looking to make up for Covid heartache after he was forced to miss Croatia defeat in 2021

Billy the Kid just turned 23 and has a chin full of stubble. He is ready to complete the journey from boy to man.

It has been three years since Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour announced his arrival in the European Championship with a mature performance against England at Wembley. The coronavirus proved to be a tougher opponent than the Three Lions.

“I found out the next morning I had Covid so I had to isolate,” the Brighton midfielder now recalls. ‘I had to go straight to my house. I had my car, so I had to drive straight through, without any stops.

‘So that was ten days of isolation. I felt fine, but with Covid you can’t do anything.

‘I had my neighbor make me dinner. I’m staying in a top floor apartment in London and my downstairs neighbor – she knew my mum too – texted her asking if I was OK.

“She brought lunch, breakfast and dinner and just left it at my front door.

‘All I remember is watching the final match (against Croatia) in my room and not being able to do anything.’

The frustration was compounded by the sight of Luka Modric putting on a masterclass at Hampden to eliminate Scotland in the final group match. A magician in midfield, the diminutive Real Madrid maestro is the type of player Gilmour wants to be.

Toni Kroos is another talent, and Scotland’s best talent in a generation will get the chance to show he can match the very best when he takes on the German at the Allianz Arena tomorrow night.

“After the England game I knew I could have had a chance to play another game or play a role against Croatia, and especially to face Modric,” Gilmour admits now. ‘Mateo Kovacic also played in that game.

‘That hurt a bit. I couldn’t help it.

‘I remember watching it and Modric was incredible. His goal was also incredible.

‘When special players like Modric and Kroos do things like that, you just have to take your hat off to them.

‘I always looked at Barcelona, ​​I always looked at Iniesta. I watched Fabregas, Iniesta, Xavi and of course Modric and Kroos on YouTube.

‘If you go into a match now and watch highlights of clips, you see how well they play football. It’s quite impressive.

‘I try to do the same things in games, but everyone is different. If you look at Toni Kroos, he is always very calm on the ball and composed.’

In the three years since the last Euro, the boy from Ayrshire has come of age. He left Chelsea for a season-long loan spell at Norwich City, where he looked like a fish out of water. Moving to Brighton under Roberto De Zerbi was the making of the man.

People stopped seeing him as the kid with all that potential.

‘I’m 23 now, so… people always look at me, maybe height, build: “Little boy, just a kid.”

‘I get it. I get it a lot. It’s not something that irritates me. I am no longer a young child.

“I’ve been in the game for a while, I know my place, I know I’ve gained experience and can be a help to Tommy (Conway).

“Myself and Nathan Patterson came into the team from a young age and we can show that the path is achievable for the young people in Scotland.”

Before this season, the most first-team appearances Gilmour had managed in a single campaign were the 28 he played in the middle of a doomed campaign with the Canaries.

Booed by supporters, the season ended in relegation.

A £7m move to Brighton was a better fit. He played every week, as he put it, he became an established figure in the English Premier League.

For the first time in his career he reached 50 appearances in one season.

“I’ve really enjoyed it from the start of the Premier League season,” Gilmour admits.

‘When I played the majority of the games I had the confidence of my manager. And we have a good team, I like the way we play football.

‘That style suits me on the ball. Every game we knew we had a very good chance of beating the other team.

“You have to have a little bit of that confidence.”

That is a quality he will certainly need when Kroos and his German teammates come into view tomorrow evening.

‘Toni Kroos is a top player. He won everything in the game,” Gilmour acknowledges. ‘He has now retired from the top flight of Real Madrid and he is still incredible.

“So for me, if I get a chance to play against him, I’ll be excited.

‘But you can’t just concentrate on one player. The Germans have top players in their team. Musiala is a top player, Kai Havertz, Wirtz. Everyone. It’s a top team, a top team.’

However, here in Germany, locals don’t really know what to expect from their national side.

There is some uncertainty, fueled by a terrible World Cup in Qatar, when they spent more time discussing rainbow bracelets and human rights than football.

Kroos’ return from retirement helps, of course, and Scotland’s best hope of containing the maestro in midfield is to keep the ball away from him.

“I think that will be the goal for us,” Gilmour said. ‘If we have the ball, they can’t score.

“So it’s probably the best we can do. We will go out there against Germany and give everything and hopefully try to win the game.”

Whatever happens, this time Gilmour plans to hold on to his boots. After being placed in Covid isolation after Wembley, he never found out where his match boots or shin pads had gone. The pads were personalized with images of him wearing a Scotland shirt and members of his family.

Tomorrow evening in Munich he can see father Billy in person. Regardless of whether his son was in the squad or not, Gilmour Senior was always on his way to Germany to take out a tournament membership of the Tartan Army.

“My dad told me he was going to be here with all his friends no matter what,” Gilmour says. ‘It was a dream of his. My dad, mom, brother, all my dad’s friends, my family, his uncles, they’re all excited and can’t wait.”