Aston Villa ace John McGinn blown away by ‘phenomenal’ Leeds United star Liam Cooper after Scotland win

Aston Villa ace John McGinn has praised Leeds United “leader” Liam Cooper after Scotland defeated Norway in Euro 2024 qualifying.

Goals from Lyndon Dykes and Kenny McLean helped secure a memorable 2-1 win for the Scots on Saturday (17 June) after Erling Haaland had opened the scoring for the hosts.

And midfielder McGinn was blown away by his teammate Cooper, who entered the match as a 65th-minute substitute.

“Coops is a leader, he has been captain of Leeds for a long time now,” said McGinn, as quoted by STV. “He came on and he was screaming ‘Just one chance, we only need one chance’. And that just filtered through.

“They (Norway) will be feeling a little bit hard done by, they were the better team during the game. But I thought our subs were phenomenal. Credit to every single sub, they were frightening.”

Stunning win

It was a stunning win for Scotland in every sense of the word, with Steve Clarke’s men creating memories for their fans for many years to come with the dramatic victory.

They were up against two of the best players in world football in Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, with the former showing his class with his goal from the penalty spot just after the hour mark.

But he was kept relatively quiet throughout the rest of the match, with Leeds ace Cooper definitely playing his part in that.

Cooper didn’t exactly have the best campaign at Elland Road, but the same can be said for the vast majority of Leeds players as the club dropped down to the Championship.

The defender, however, showed all of his experience and leadership in the superb win for Clarke’s men, who now sit five points clear at the top of their qualifying group with three victories from three.

In other Leeds United news, the Whites want to sign one “magnificent” West Brom star who is available this summer.