Ryan Christie believes it is only a matter of time before Oli McBurnie finds the back of the net for Scotland.
The Sheffield United striker led the line for the national team in yesterday’s 1-0 defeat by Slovakia in Trnava and passed up a couple of fine opportunities on his 14th cap as Scotland registered their first defeat in 10 games.
Queens Park Rangers striker Lyndon Dykes was selected by Steve Clarke for Thursday’s crucial Euro 2020 play-off final and produced an impressive display.
The Australian-born attacker, who was suspended for yesterday’s match, has already scored two goals in six games for Scotland while McBurnie is waiting for his first after making his 14th appearance for his country against Slovakia.
But Celtic attacker Christie is confident the 24-year-old will come good for the national team.
He said: “It is only a matter of time before he gets on the scoresheet.
“He is a good player. We see it every day in training when he comes away.
“He was very unlucky with the header and the chance in the first half when the defender made a great block.
“It is only a matter of time before Oli gets on the scoresheet. I think everybody knows that.”
Christie admitted the physical and emotional exertions of Thursday night’s penalty shootout victory against Serbia may have been a factor as Scotland went down 1-0 thanks to Jan Gregus’ first-half strike.
But he felt encouraged by another positive display by Clarke’s men as a nine-game unbeaten run came to an end.
He said: “We are still very happy with the performance.
“It was frustrating to lose.
“Finally the unbeaten run comes to an end.
“The gaffer said after the game that there is a way to finish a run like that and it is with a performance like that.
“I’m still trying to figure out how we didn’t score as we created plenty of chances going forward.
“We limited them to very few at the other side so it was a frustrating game.
“But there are plenty of positives to take and now we have one big push on Wednesday night to top the group.”
The Scotland team were partying until 5am on Friday morning after ending a 22-year wait to qualify for a major tournament.
A victory against Slovakia would have confirmed Scotland as winners of Nations League Group B2 ahead of their final fixture away to Israel on Wednesday.
Christie added: “Obviously the party went on until the early hours after the game, as expected.
“It was a quick turnaround and probably not the best preparation going into this game.
“The other night was a history-making night and we had to make the most of it.
“We are disappointed not to win as we had visions of coming here and winning to top the group.
“Instead we will have to do it on Wednesday night.
“We wanted to keep it in our own hands and forget the other results.
“It will be a tough place to go.
“We have played Israel plenty times and every single time it has been neck and neck.
“We expect the same going over there, but we are still confident.
“Even though we are frustrated in defeat there are plenty of positives to take.
“It was a great performance going forward so we will take that into Wednesday.”
