Why Scotland's Euro 2020 campaign is so important to a generation of fans

Alas, it was not to be. We were 3-0 down before halftime and by the end of the 90 minutes we'd succumbed to a humiliating 6-0 loss, with Ruud Van Nistelrooy having netted a hat-trick for the Dutch.

To say I was distraught would be an understatement but at the time I consoled myself with the fact that surely it wouldn't be too long until I'd see Scotland play at a major tournament.

At the time, after all, it was only a few years since we'd featured at the 1998 World Cup in France. It seemed a return to the big time couldn't be far away.

Since then, my generation of Scotland fans has seen many things: we've seen them beat France home and away during Euro 2008 qualifying only to miss out on the tournament thanks to defeat in Georgia.

We've seen Craig Levein experiment with a disastrous 4-6-0 formation away against the Czech Republic.

We've seen Leigh Griffiths score two sublime free-kicks to put us 2-1 up against England only for Harry Kane to net an equaliser with the last kick of the ball.

We've seen our side forced to rely on a 97th-minute winner to defeat the mighty Liechtenstein.

We've seen Scotland fail to qualify for Euro 2016 when all the other home nations made it.

We've seen our team – little over two years ago – humbled in a 3-0 loss to the titans of Kazakhstan.

But since that summer of '98, we have never seen the Tartan Army at a major tournament. Until now.

The night of 12th November 2020, when we took on Serbia in our Euro 2020 play-off final, will live long in the memory for all Scotland fans – the elation of Ryan Christie's opening goal, the outright despair of Luka Jovic's 90th-minute equaliser, and finally, mercifully, the sheer euphoria of a David Marshall penalty save that secured our place in the tournament finals.

TV fans may have seen a viral video of Line of Duty star Martin Compston exuberantly celebrating the result on set – and his reaction was repeated in homes throughout the nation (not to mention those, like me, now living outside Scotland).

A friend compared the flurry of phone calls between loved ones following the shoot-out to New Year’s Eve but this was much better. Finally, Scotland had qualified.

It hardly mattered that in the next few days we were defeated by both Slovakia and Israel because, come June, we would be lining up against Europe's finest, the cream of the crop.

Now, as Euro 2020 fixtures prepare to launch into the finals, excitement is at a fever pitch. Scotland head into the tournament as underdogs in Group D (alongside England, the Czech Republic, and Croatia) and, despite years of misfortune conditioning us otherwise, there is reason for Scots to be cautiously optimistic heading into the campaign.

We beat our opening opponents the Czech Republic twice in our recent Nations League campaign (although this was in part due to a coronavirus outbreak among the opposing squad in one of those matches) and have never lost to Croatia in five previous meetings.

With home advantage and a dash of luck, it's not out of the question for Scotland to get something from both of those games.

England v Scotland at Wembley is the trickiest encounter of the bunch but if there's one game the players will be up for more than any, it's this one and, in a one-off match, anything is possible.

Scotland also boast the strongest squad in quite some time with Premier League regulars Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney, John McGinn, and Scott McTominay among our key players, while teenagers Billy Gilmour and Nathan Patterson are both pushing for starts after impressing in pre-tournament friendlies.

Qualifying from the group is no doubt the goal but, for now, we can simply celebrate being there to begin with.

When Flower of Scotland rings out at Hampden Park on Monday 14th June, Scotland will be brought to tears.

For a whole generation of fans, Euro 2020 with Scotland in tow is an event, a spectacle, a moment we lost belief in witnessing. But here it is.

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