PARIS Saint-Germain midfielder Vitinha has singled out the player he admires the most in the Scotland side ahead of Portugal’s rematch with their Nations League rivals.
Vitinha is expected to feature for Roberto Martinez’s men in their League A Group 1 encounter with Steve Clarke’s charges at Hampden this evening.
The 24-year-old cost French giants PSG a cool €41.5m when he joined them from Wolves two years ago and is one of a number of world-class players in the visitors’ squad.
Read more:
- The Scotland record Steve Clarke 'didn't know about'
- Souttar warns Scotland against expecting too much too soon from Doak
- Portugal star delivers ominous warning ahead of Scotland tie
However, he is expecting a difficult evening in Mount Florida having seen his national team struggle to secure a 2-1 triumph in Lisbon last month.
The 22-times capped playmaker confessed he is a fan of Billy Gilmour, who joined Napoli in Italy earlier this season, after watching the closely-contested match.
“We have already watched and talked about the strength of Scotland and we already have the reference of the first match,” he said. “We know which of the players are key, what things we have to do to break the dynamics from the Scottish team.
“If you want me to speak about one player it is a little bit unfair. it is not about one player, it is about the team, it is about the physicality that they have. We know what we have to do to break that.
“Maybe he is a little bit different regarding the way the team plays, but I think he adds a lot to this team.”
Read more:
- Cristiano Ronaldo & Portugal train at St Mirren's stadium
- Five things Steve Clarke must do for Scotland to beat Portugal
- Steve Clarke wants to make sure Scotland get the best out of Ben Doak
Vitinha added: “When I talk about physicality being the main characteristic or the prime thing when you look at Scotland, it is not that they don't have the rest of it, of course not.
“It is just that I think that is the most dangerous aspect that they can harm us, and that is the aspect that we have to look at and pay attention to.
“But still, we have to equal that physicality as well in the duels because we know that we are not going to get away from the physicality of the Scotland team always. So when the duels come, we have to win it as well.
“We are a team that has strengths. We have pace, we have skills, we have tactical skills as well. We do have a quite complete team.
“So tomorrow we plan to focus on technical aspects and maybe try not to enter into that physical game, that is known for the Scottish team. I think that will be important.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here