'Frightening' Leeds United figure hailed by Aston Villa star as Whites man's message is revealed

Leeds captain Liam Cooper returned from injury to be back available for United’s last two games of the season and was then named in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for this month’s two Euro 2024 qualifiers.

Cooper was named on the bench for Saturday’s clash in Norway who were on course for victory when a 61st-minute penalty converted by Manchester City star Erling Haaland gave them a 1-0 lead.

Cooper was then introduced as Clarke’s first substitution just four minutes later and Villa’s Scotland international midfielder John McGinn says the Whites captain played a key role in the remarkable events that happened next, hailing the impact of his side’s substitutes as “frightening”.

In sweltering conditions, Scotland stunned the Oslo faithful when equalising in the 87th minute through Lyndon Dykes and Kenny McLean then bagged an 89th-minute winner which kept Clarke’s side top of their qualifying ground with a 100 per cent record. Centre-back Cooper was not directly involved in either of Scotland’s goals – but McGinn says his influence was huge.

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

"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.”

Scotland are back in action on Tuesday evening with the visit of Georgia in another Euros qualifier.