McGregor’s ‘perfect’ storm

Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor believes Belgium are the “perfect” warm-up opponents for Scotland ahead of the Nations League opener against Albania.

Scotland take on the World Cup semi-finalists in a friendly at Hampden Park tomorrow night before hosting Albania on Monday.

While the Scots are clearly coming up against a side of proven pedigree that could inflict some damage to morale, McGregor wants to measure himself against high quality when he wears the Scotland shirt.

He said: “As a professional you always want to test yourself and those types of games are perfect for you.

“As a player you want to play against the best and if you feel like you’ve done well in that game you come out of it and feel good about yourself and take that confidence into the next game. You want to play against the best players and Belgium certainly proved that at the World Cup in the summer. They are a big team with a lot of good players.

“But it is always good to test yourself against the best.

“The game will be intense, they will play one and two touch and get the ball moving so I think that is a good idea to have that before you play in the competitive game.”

While the Belgium squad is packed with well-known superstars, Albania are more of an unknown quantity, albeit they reached the European Championship in 2016.

However, McGregor’s recent experience with Celtic in Champions League qualifiers will ensure he will not take anything for granted.