Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland admits his goal against Finland has given him an extra spring in his step ahead of the Euros.
The Hearts captain headed home Andrew Robertson’s cross to put Scotland two ahead on Friday before the visitors fought back for a draw.
It was a third goal in 11 internationals for Shankland, who hit 31 goals for Hearts last season and travels to Germany full of confidence ahead of the European Championship opener against the hosts in Munich on Friday.
After being handed starts in both warm-up games, Shankland had not managed to test the goalkeepers of Gibraltar and Finland before his second-half goal on Friday, although he had been restricted to half-chances at best.
“Of course, when you are getting the opportunity to start games, you want to get on the scoresheet,” he said.
“I had a couple of sniffs in the first half and I didn’t quite get on the end of them.
“But thankfully I was in the position again and Andy managed to find me so I’m delighted with that.”
It was the type of goal that Hampden had possibly seen before, albeit in front of a smaller crowd.
Shankland and Robertson spent their first full seasons in league football in the same Queen’s Park team and the 28-year-old striker was grateful for the assist from his long-standing friend.
“It’s been a while,” he said. “I lost track of him for a bit! Thankfully we managed to get another one. It’s a few years now, I didn’t have any grey hair the last time.”
While Robertson is set to captain Scotland for a 50th time against Germany after leaving Queen’s Park at the same time as Shankland and seeing his career go on an upward trajectory with Dundee United, Hull and Liverpool, the Hearts forward has had a less smooth journey.
Shankland also went north-east in 2013 to Aberdeen but did not really make the first-team breakthrough there and enjoyed mixed success in loan spells before finding prolific form at Ayr, Dundee United and now Hearts.
With Lyndon Dykes out through injury, Shankland is only behind Che Adams in terms of international experience in Clarke’s strikeforce, with Tommy Conway and Lewis Morgan boasting only four caps between them.
Shankland is relishing the responsibility, just as he did when handed the Hearts captaincy 18 months ago in the wake of Craig Gordon’s leg break.
He said: “Of course, when you’ve been involved in many camps, maybe not played so much in the past, but getting the experience of being around everybody, you just stay ready, staying ready for the opportunity. And when it comes to trying to take it, that’s all I do really when I’m on the pitch.”
😘 @Shankland25 #EURO2024 | #SCOFIN pic.twitter.com/oQUf7At6Wn
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 7, 2024
Adams was not risked for fitness reasons on Friday but Shankland enjoyed the onus of being asked to start against both Gibraltar and Finland.
“That’s obviously good,” he said. “The game was difficult over there, the circumstances. You can’t see on the telly but the pitch was so hard to move the ball, so it did make it difficult for us.
“Going into Friday night, I was confident if I got the chance to start again that I could maybe get on the scoresheet. I was keen to do that obviously, being at home at Hampden.”
