McKenna sure Scotland playmaker Gilmour can steal the limelight from Germany superstar Kroos

WHEN Scotland returned to the international stage, it was Billy Gilmour who tap danced into the spotlight and stole the show.

The date was June 18, 2021. Thrust in to the starting XI for a 0-0 draw at Wembley, the playmaker from Ayrshire was unflustered by a stellar England midfield. Covid would prove a more troublesome opponent than either Declan Rice or Mason Mount.

‘Nothing fazes him,’ said captain Andrew Robertson that night. ‘That’s why I believe he can have as many caps as he wants for Scotland. He’s got a huge future ahead of him, but the here and now is pretty good as well.’

Three years have passed since then, in which time Gilmour has left Chelsea, spent a difficult season on loan at Norwich and found his sea legs in the English Premier League under Roberto di Zerbi at Brighton.

His 23rd birthday passed yesterday with no fuss or ceremony. A training session in the Olympia Stadium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was followed by more preparations for the opening game of Euro 2024 against Germany in Munich when his unflappable nature will face its sternest test yet.

At the age of 34, Toni Kroos plans to retire from football by lifting the only major trophy he hasn’t won already. The only player in history to win a World Cup and six Champions League winners’ medals, the midfield master has captured three league championships in Germany and four in Spain. Coach Julian Nagelsmann paints an intimidating picture of a footballing superhero with a physical presence few can match.

‘When you hug Toni Kroos, he is like steel,’ said Nagelsmann. ‘He has an incredible body.’

While Gilmour would never win a physical stand-off, he is blessed with technical craft. And, as Wembley illustrated, big reputations mean nothing.

‘I think Billy will thrive in that sort of occasion,’ said Scotland defender Scott McKenna yesterday. ‘His mindset will be that he will want to go out and show that he can be every bit as good on his day.

‘Obviously Toni Kroos has done it and proved it over a long, long time. But I think that is where Billy will aspire to get to. If he is playing on Friday, he will want to take all the headlines.’

Kroos was instrumental in Real Madrid claiming both La Liga and the Champions League this season, boasting a staggering pass success rate of 94.7 per cent. Gilmour, meanwhile, was the third best midfielder in England’s top flight last season when it came to his pass success rate of 92.2 per cent. Both players are capable of placing a ball on a sixpence from 30 yards, and McKenna believes the Scot has earned the right to share the same domain as Germany’s main man in the Allianz Arena.

‘Absolutely. He has worked under some fantastic managers at Chelsea and Brighton and has come a long way in the last two or three years. I think he will be looking to replicate what he did in that England game, but with even more experience.’

Gilmour’s international trajectory mirrors that of his team-mates. In 2018, McKenna was pitched into an inexperienced Scotland team as captain by Alex McLeish in a friendly defeat to Mexico in the Azteca Stadium. Like many of the players in Scotland’s squad in Germany, the central defender has steadily built his way up to international recognition, 34 caps in his case.

‘Mexico was a long time ago and, if you want to talk about caps, that night the squad must have had 28 caps between us all,’ he said.

‘I’ve said before that you’ll probably struggle to find anyone with less than 28 caps themselves these days. That does show how far the team has come in a five or six-year period.’

Despite Gilmour’s arrival at the Covid-delayed Euro 2020 finals, the tournament proved anti-climactic for Scotland.

In the final game at Hampden, a masterclass from Croatia illustrated how short they were of the finished article. They needed experience, streetwise know-how of major tournaments and, most of all, caps.

Against Finland last Friday night, Robertson became the longest-serving Scotland captain of all time. Grant Hanley won his 50th cap. Even Gilmour is no longer a teenage talent.

Manager Steve Clarke told the Scottish National team channels last night: ‘It’s a group that’s grown together. They enjoy each other’s company.

‘There are no little groups that isolate themselves. They’re happy to be here and so they should be.

‘They should be delighted to be here. From now, it’s about being ready for the games. All those dynamics have been put in place over the last four or five years.

‘Something I earmarked pretty early on, going into the last tournament, was that they had about 400 caps between them. This time we’re going in with about 800.

‘They’re a bit more experienced. We’ve lost some of the younger players, which leaves us a bit older as a group.

‘We’ve got a good, experienced squad who have a better idea this time of what’s required. Four points is the target to get qualification but we’d like a little bit more than that if we can.’

McKenna left Nottingham Forest for a loan spell at FC Copenhagen in January, chasing first-team football while his contract ran down. A debut of fire came with a Champions League knockout tie against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. When a man has dealt with Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, a game against Jamal Musiala and Kroos maybe doesn’t feel quite so bad. The core message is that Scotland haven’t fluked their way to another Euro finals. They have put in the hard yards and earned the right to be here.

‘We have players playing in the Premier League with three more years of playing against top opposition,’ observes McKenna.

‘Not just from the Premier League, there are people from all over the world playing at the top level.

‘Even at club level, they are gaining that experience against top individuals.’

Against Kroos and Co, there’s a creeping suspicion that they’ll need it.