Why Scotland will play 'our way' in daunting Under-17 Euros as defender reveals Rangers star inspiration

On Wednesday Scotland Under-17s will kick off the European Championships in Hungary against France. The country with the best qualifying record for the tournament. Three days later they meet Portugal. The country with the second best qualifying record. Both having won all three of their games in the elite round.

It gets easier after that. On paper at least. The third and final group stage opponents are Germany who had the audacity of losing one of their three elite round qualifying games. To say Scotland will be tested is an understatement. Yet, that’s exactly what manager Brian McLaughlin wants.

"The preparation will be the exact same,” he said ahead of the tournament. “We made a conscious decision two years ago that we were going to try to play our way. Who we play, doesn't matter. In this tournament we are now taking the boys and we are going to stretch them as far as we possibly can because we are going to play our way against the very best in Europe.”

Scotland have managed to qualify for back-to-back tournaments and will be aiming to improve on last year’s showing which saw them lose all three games, including 5-1 against a very impressive Portugal side. There are players who were part of that very young squad who are back again, such as Rory Wilson, while they are joined by new faces in a 20-strong squad. One of those is Rangers defender Leyton Grant who has started five of the last six Under-17 matches.

‘New challenge’

Should the 17-year-old feature he could be a key player for Scotland with the defence set to be tested against three countries who have won this competition 12 times between them. And as McLaughlin noted, “history shows, in this tournament in particular, the best players in Europe will play in this tournament”, listing Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland as three examples.

“The quality of player goes up with how athletic and how physical the game is, so it’s always a good test,” Grant said. “I think I’ve done well so far. We’ve come here with a game plan and hopefully we can pull it off against these top teams. I’ve not played against any of them so it will be a new challenge.”

Grant, whose uncle Gareth Morton was a professional rugby league player and represented Scotland, started for Rangers in the bonkers Youth Cup final at the start of the month which finished 6-5 to Celtic after extra-time. The next step will likely be regular B team involvement in the Lowland League next season as he looks to follow in the footsteps of Ibrox team-mates, both domestically and for Scotland.

Leyton Grant will be hoping to feature for Scotland in the Under-17 European Championships against France. Picture: SFA

“You bump into the first team at Rangers and I speak to the likes of Adam Devine, Alex Lowry and Leon King who obviously all play for Scotland youth teams as well”, he said. “I’d say I like the way Ben Davies plays for Rangers. I think he’s so composed on the ball and some of his passing is top.”

The kick-off for the match in Hungary is 3.30pm (UK time) on Wednesday, May 16. It can be watched live on the BBC Scotland website.