STEVE Clarke is set to hand Aberdeen centre half Mikey Devlin his Scotland debut in the Euro 2020 qualifier against Russia here in Moscow tonight.
But Lawrence Shankland, the Dundee United striker, won’t start the Group I match in the Luzhniki Stadium up front in the absence of Oliver McBurnie.
Clarke will field Oliver Burke, the West Brom striker who has moved to Alaves in Spain on loan this season and scored against Cyprus back in June, in attack.
His preparations for the game against Stanislav Cherchesov’s side have been hit by call-offs and Kenny McLean, the Norwich City midfielder, didn’t travel yesterday due to an unspecified injury.
The national team manager is set to play Devlin at centre half ahead of Stuart Findlay of Kilmarnock Declan Gallagher of Motherwell after Liam Cooper and Grant Hanley both withdrew from his squad.
Clarke’s hopes of getting a result against the World Cup quarter-finalists here are slim – but he has targeted maximum points from Scotland’s remaining four group games.
“There are no free hits,” he said. “I’d like 12 points from the remaining four games of this group.
“Yes, we know it’s going to be really tough here in Russia but there are no free hits all the same. We owe it to the 1,000 or so Tartan Army who have travelled here to watch us as well.We are looking to put on a good performance and hopefully take all three points back to Scotland. I want a good performance level in the next four matches.”
My belief is always is the performance level is good enough then the points will follow.”
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