'Don't worry England fans - I missed out on Musiala too'

'Don't worry England fans - I missed out on Musiala too'

I could not have asked for a better start to Euro 2024 - speaking as a German, a pundit and a football fan.

I have enjoyed every second so far, from the tournament opener in Munich to my travels to watch games in Dortmund, Dusseldorf and now Leipzig.

It’s been amazing to experience games in so many different cities already, and meet so many different people. The football has delivered too and, so far, it has felt like the party that everyone wanted to happen is actually here.

For lots of reasons, Germany’s win over Scotland on Friday was very special, and the entire day was exactly what I was hoping for from a fan’s perspective - friendly, peaceful and a fantastic atmosphere.

I went to the game with a friend who is Scottish and, although I had to cheer him up because he was quite depressed after the first half, the beauty of it was that the result did not change anything about how the tens of thousands of Scotland fans in Munich behaved afterwards.

As for Germany, well everything fell into place. The team put on their best performance so far under Julian Nagelsmann, and Scotland just were not ready for it.

‘I missed out on Musiala too’

Like most German fans, I felt Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala would be key to our hopes at these Euros, and they were our two outstanding players against Scotland.

I know there is a lot of talk back in England about how they missed out on Musiala - who grew up in London, was in Chelsea’s academy and played for England at youth level - but I have to admit I missed out on him as well.

During the 2018-19 season I was head of Stuttgart’s academy and made the trip to England to watch him, because there were rumours Musiala was willing to leave Chelsea and that you could sign him.

He had a connection to Stuttgart, because his mother is from the area and he was born in the city, so I went to see him play for Chelsea’s academy against Brighton.

I will never forget it, because I went back to Germany thinking that, in possession, he was interesting, and had something about him – but without the ball, he just switched off. He just didn’t track back.

We kept watching him, but it wasn’t a case where you see a player and immediately think we need to do everything to get him.

That’s what I always think the beauty of scouting is because, of course now, everyone would say that it was always clear he would become a super player.

But that day, while I thought we should keep an eye out for him, it was not obvious that he would definitely become a Champions League player or full international.

Watching Musiala now is ‘pure pleasure’

The memory of scouting Musiala makes me smile because he joined Bayern not long after and we could never have competed with them to sign him anyway.

Then a few years later I was watching the Champions League, and there is Musiala. I thought 'that’s the same player I watched in Chelsea’s academy' and I could not believe how far he had come.

Now, every game I watch him is pure pleasure. He is not one of those academy players who just plays a certain style of football. Of course he has gone through some top academies, but he is different.

If you look at his physique he does not stand out as someone with phenomenal pace or incredible strength but, when he is on the ball, he does things hardly anyone else can do.

His qualities that stand out are his technique and understanding of the game, plus the bravery to deal with heavy tackles, take players on and find solutions in tight areas - I have not seen that from a German player for many, many years.

'Germany have raised the bar'

While I had seen enough of Musiala and Wirtz in the past that I was not surprised to see them perform at such a high level against Scotland, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the rest of the Germany players.

But the people around them also delivered. It was an excellent all-round team performance, and there was something different compared to what we saw in our friendly games with Ukraine and Greece before the Euros started.

This time, there was an urgency about our play that was pretty obvious to see, whether we were in or out of possession.

What happens without the ball was an element we had been struggling with but, on Friday, it was absolutely top class. When we lost it, we won it back immediately.

It obviously helped that Scotland were down to 10 men for the whole second half but even before then we smothered them and did not give them a moment to rest.

In front of goal, too, we did everything right. We had controlled the friendly against Ukraine without being able to score, but this time we made our dominance count.

If we can stay at that level for the next five games then I am super-confident we can go all the way to the final… but we have to be realistic about that.

We have raised the bar so high, but you have to remember we are not a side that has found these levels on a regular basis yet, in tournament football. We have shown what we are capable of, but there might be some difficult moments ahead.

Thomas Hitzlsperger was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan in Germany.