Leigh Griffiths has not featured for the Scotland national side since September 2018 but that is set to change on Thursday night when Steve Clarke may look to the Celtic striker to produce some late magic, perhaps like his recent goals after coming off the Celtic bench against Aberdeen and Sparta Prague.
Certainly Griffiths has been impressing in the Scotland set-up ahead of the Euro-Finals play-off against Serbia on Thursday night. Clarke’s assistant Steven Reid has been talking about the impact that the Celtic number 9 has made during the first Scotland training session ahead of the game.
“It was a smaller training session but you see glimpses, you see it all the time, those moments of quality that might be needed,” the Scotland coach told the media, as reported by Glasgow Times.
“His finish against Aberdeen took my breath away, the shift and the finish into the top corner.
“That’s what he offers, that’s what I have seen, that’s the quality he has, which has never been in doubt, it’s just about the consistency and the amount of minutes he has played and getting back up to match speed. But the quality is there and it was a pleasure to see some of his touches and finishes.”
Meanwhile media reports that the Italian based Serbian stars would not be able to travel home for the final against Scotland appear to be wide of the mark. Aleksandar Kolarov, the Inter Milan defender and Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic Savic both arrived in Belgrade yesterday morning while the Fiorentina stars Nikola Milenkovic and Dusan Vlahovic showed up last night and are now available for selection.
The Serbian FA issued a statement on Instagram confirming the situation. “The huge effort of the Football Association of Serbia paid off in the end! After a few days of great struggle, it was possible for Nikola Milenkovic and Dusan Vlahovic to arrive in our country late Monday night and join the national team in the preparations at the sports centre of the Serbian Football Federation, so they will be available to coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic in the game against Scotland.”
So Scotland’s task has just got harder. Maybe Clarke’s best bet is to try to keep it tight and level until the latter stages of the game then unleash the Griff! It would be the ideal scenario for the Celtic hitman to do what he does best!
