Lewis Relishing Elite Games

[Rangers Football Club 0]

LEWIS MACLEOD is hoping he gets another chance to shine for his country tonight when Ricky Sbragiaâ??s under-19s face Belgium in the first of three European under-19 Championship elite round games to be played in the next six days.

 

The young Scots will take on their Group 6 hosts this evening in Geel, Georgia on Sunday (May 26) and England on Wednesday (May 29) in Westerloo with the group winners progressing to this summerâ??s finals in Lithuania.

Having missed four months of the 2012/13 season because of a knee injury picked up against Montrose on January 26, Macleod, Rangers' sole representative in the 18-man squad, is now ready to kick on again and is delighted to be back on the international stage.

He said: â??Itâ??s always nice to be picked for your country and it was a bit of surprise for me this time as I missed quite a lot of the season due to injury.

â??I donâ??t know how much game time Iâ??ll get but Iâ??m really looking forward to playing again.

â??Weâ??ve watched Belgium in action and they look a really good team but we expect that, to get to this stage you need to be a good side.

â??When you look at their senior team they have a lot of great players in the top leagues around the world and Iâ??m sure they have a lot coming through as well.

â??So we will need to be at our best to beat them. Belgium are also the group hosts so they will have their fans behind them which will add a bit of pressure on their shoulders which was the same for us when we played the qualifiers.

â??All we can do though is focus on the 90 minutes, try to play well and hopefully we can get a win prior to taking on Georgia and England.â?

Scotland progressed to the elite round stage after obtaining maximum points from their qualification group, defeating Armenia 4-0, Romania 1-0 and Switzerland 4-3.

Lewis scored in the victory over the Armenians at New Douglas Park on October 9, 2012 and hopes his side can get off to a good start once again against a strong Belgian team that topped a qualifying group containing Italy, Albania and Belarus.

Speaking at the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld prior to jetting out with his team-mates he added: â??I donâ??t think anyone expected us to win all three games in our qualifying group but we managed to do that and play some good football at the same time.

â??Hopefully we can continue that form in the three games coming up.

â??Weâ??ve got a good group of players and the majority are playing first team football regularly or have had a taste of it already.

â??Thatâ??s good to see and I think we now go into every match with confidence believing we can do well.â?**

UEFA European Under-19 elite round match schedule:

 

Today

 

Scotland v Belgium (Geel Meerhout, kick-off 6pm)

England v Georgia (Bornem, kick-off 6pm)

 

Sunday, 26th May 2013

 

Scotland v Georgia (Oosterzonen, kick-off 3pm)

Belgium v England (Geel Meerhout, kick-off 7pm)

 

Wednesday, 29th May 2013

 

England v Scotland (Oosterzonen, kick-off 6pm)

Georgia v Belgium (Bornem, kick-off 6pm)

 

All kick-off times are local time.

 

 

 

 

 

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[the gunslinger 3,366]

the lad is a fantastic prospect.