Stuart Armstrong: Scotland aim to build momentum after Armenia win

Scotland midfielder Stuart Armstrong says the national team can build momentum as they look to win their Nations League group this year to boost Euro 2024 hopes.

A 2-0 win over Armenia in the opening game at Hampden was a positive start to the campaign, and helped put the disappointment of the World Cup play-off defeat in the past.

The team now travel to Dublin to face Republic of Ireland on Saturday, knowing their hosts have struggled in defeats to Armenia and Ukraine, and that three points would be important even this early in the group.

After enjoying a long unbeaten run before the play-off, Scotland are looking to regain momentum and Armstrong says the opportunity is there this weekend.

“We want to get up a head of steam,” he said. “Obviously we had a disappointment last week but now it’s about building again.

“We’re in a new campaign, we’ve started off well with three points.

“It’s about building on that with another strong performance on Saturday. It will be a different type of challenge but we believe we can build momentum.

“I’m sure Ireland will be disappointed with the start they’ve had so the challenge will be even greater with them wanting to get some points and get off the mark.”

The Ireland trip will be followed with the return match against Armenia in Yerevan next week, bringing to an end a busy international break after a long season for the players. Armstrong said that the players wouldn’t look past the next match but pointed out that the squad would allow for rotation to freshen things up.

“It’s a tight schedule,” he said. “We had a week before our first game but now we’re in a run of three games in a week so we don’t want to think too far ahead – it’s just one game at a time.

“We’ll have a bit of a recovery and then we’ve got a tough challenge on Saturday.

“There’s a lot of depth across all the different positions which helps a lot. There will be a lot of recovery until Saturday but we’ve got a lot of fresh faces if required. It’s a good squad with a lot of options.”