Cristian Gamboa urges Scotland to pick his Celtic team-mates

Costa Rica's Cristian Gamboa has urged Alex McLeish to deploy his Celtic team-mates in order to make the most of his Scotland squad.

Costa Rica's Cristian Gamboa and Scotland's Andrew Robertson. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

The 1-0 defeat by Costa Rica on Friday was the first Scotland game in eight that their starting line-up failed to feature any player from the Scottish champions.

That fact did not entirely surprise Celtic fringe player Gamboa – “they’ve played a lot of games, so it was good for them to get a rest” – but the impact of Callum McGregor and Stuart Armstrong as second-half substitutes has convinced the full-back this duo, and James Forrest, should be starters for Tuesday’s encounter in Hungary.

“It was good for them [McGregor and Armstrong] when they came on in the second half and you could see a difference in the team,” said Gamboa, with the ‘Celtic six’ of Gordon Strachan’s last year in charge having been reduced for the current double-header by the international retirement of Scott Brown and injuries to Kieran Tierney and Craig Gordon.

“When they came on you saw different movement around the pitch and Scotland had the ball. I think they are different players with different qualities.

“Callum is a fantastic player who is doing really good things for Celtic and scoring really important goals for us. I see the quality of Callum and the Celtic players on the training pitch every day. They are used to playing under big pressure and you can see the difference they make when they come on the pitch.”