Leeds United skipper Liam Cooper's leadership skills have been hailed after he helped to inspire Scotland to a memorable UEFA 2024 qualifying campaign comeback win against Norway in Oslo.
The Scots found themselves 1-0 down to an Erling Haaland penalty with just three minutes left on the clock after a gruelling match where temperatures were around 30 degrees at kick-off. But an 87th-minute strike from Lyndon Dykes and an 89th-minute goal from Kenny McLean sealed a remarkable turnaround to maintain Scotland's perfect record in their qualification campaign.
Cooper came off the bench with 25 minutes to go, shortly after the Scots had fallen behind and his role was praised by Scotland skipper John McGinn.
“Coops is a leader, he has been captain of Leeds for a long time now,” the Aston Villa skipper told PA. “He came on and he was screaming ‘just one chance, we only need one chance’. And that just filtered through.
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“Don’t get me wrong, it was roasting, but the shade started coming in towards that end and I don’t know if it suited us but we got a wee bit of energy from somewhere.
“And a mistake at the back from them and Dykesy is alert and capitalised and from there the momentum is with us.
“From nowhere really. They will be feeling a little bit hard done by, they were the better team during the game. But I thought our subs were phenomenal.
“We played all right, we were in a good shape, we weren’t letting them create many chances but we weren’t doing anything in the game.
“Credit to every single sub, they were frightening. The manager said before the game, it’s always hard picking a starting 11 because of the strength and depth we have, which we didn’t have before.
“I am just delighted for Kenny. He is so under-rated, he is a top, top player, and it was never in doubt when Dykesy laid it off that he was going to score.”
Next up for Scotland is a Hampden Park clash against Georgia as the Tartan Army look to make it four wins out of four in Group A.
