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Henderson double earns Scotland win

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HendersonA double from Liam Henderson earned Scotland’s u-19 side a 2-1 win over Austria tonight.

The Celtic midfielder scored in the 54th and 79th minutes to get Ricky Sbragia’s side off to a winning start in their elite qualifying group for the final stages of the European Championship.

With Italy and Croatia drawing 2-2 earlier in the day Scotland go into Saturday’s match against Italy on top of the group.

As is usual with Austrian sides there was a bad tempered edge to the match with Manuel Haas sent off after 16 minutes for a foul on Celtic’s Paul McMullan.

Henderson broke the deadlock nine minutes into the second half then doubled the lead from the penalty spot after Stefan Jonovic was sent off.

Despite being down to nine players the Austrians, playing on home soil, pulled a goal back five minutes from the final whistle through Marco Kvasina but Scotland saw out the remaining minutes without mishap.

As well as Henderson and McMullan Celtic’s Calum Waters started the match with Jordan Hart the back up goalkeeper.

The build up to the game had attracted an unusual amount of attention with Real Madrid’s Jack Harper left out of the Scotland squad.

Speaking about that decision Sbragia said: “Our concentration is on the opening game with Austria and we’ve deliberately got more height in our squad. That’s one of the reasons why Jack isn’t in.

“Unfortunately, I don’t see enough of him in action. The last time he was with us, he did OK, but I wanted a little more impact. At Real Madrid he can float all over the place, which he does. But with us, he has to be more disciplined.

“He’s an exceptionally gifted lad, but sometimes we can’t carry him. He can be a luxury sometimes. In some cases, if it’s going well, he can be a good luxury.”

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