Strachan hopes Scotland are excited for friendlies

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan believes his players should be excited'' rather than apprehensive about playing two of Europe's top teams.

And Strachan wants to see the inexperienced players in his squad enjoy any game time they get against Italy.

The Scots take on Antonio Conte's side in Malta on Sunday night before playing Euro 2016 hosts France in Metz next Saturday.

While the rest of the British Isles gets warmed up for the European Championship, Scotland players are preparing for their summer holidays.

But Strachan wants to give them a taste of playing against some of the world's finest players before their World Cup qualifying campaign begins, also in Malta, in September.

Is it brave? You have to play good sides in international football and it's exciting rather than brave,'' he said.

The young players and the experienced guys that we have, get to play against world-class players.''

Callum Paterson could make his international debut given the Hearts player is the only right-back in the squad, although centre-back Russell Martin made his name in the position at Norwich.

Along with Paterson, Oliver Burke, John McGinn and Stephen Kingsley, Barrie McKay and goalkeeper Jack Hamilton are all still eligible for Scotland Under-21s.

From my point of view, you look to see if they are comfortable first of all in the squad,'' Strachan said.

Are they adaptable? Because some come from systems that are a bit different to the way we play.

And then the real test is can they stand up and enjoy the game? Are they comfortable in the game, can they enjoy the game, can they take something from it?

It would be easier for us to take a lesser team but would we really have learnt a lot from that?

Because the last couple of years we have played some tremendous sides and we have to be prepared for that.''

Darren Fletcher, the most experienced Scotland player in the squad, feels the newcomers have already shown they are ready to make their mark.

The 32-year-old, who will captain the team in the absence of the rested Scott Brown, said: All the young lads have settled in great. I must admit I have been very, very impressed with what I've seen in terms of the quality.

Obviously they are a little bit shy as you would expect from young players, but as soon as they get on the pitch they have been full of confidence and demanding the ball, and showing real quality.

The prospects for the future are fantastic but also the prospect to be involved in the squad now is there, because they have impressed everyone that much.

I can see why the manager has selected them. Obviously they are young and going to be here for the future but there's no reason why they can't be here now, they have been that impressive in training.

Hopefully they can carry that into the game because that's the next step and it's a big challenge in terms of the opposition.

But from what I've seen in training, they all look like great prospects.''

And the West Brom midfielder agreed with Strachan's assessment that playing against major powers at this stage of the season is preferable.

It makes it a little bit easier the fact we are playing against two top nations,'' he said.

The motivation is great because we are challenging ourselves against top-class sides. Individually you are playing against top-class players.

They are quite glamour friendlies and as a player you want to play against the best teams and the top players. And at the same time you want to impress the manager.

These sort of challenges are going to help us get ready for the qualifiers, which is the most important thing at the start of the season.''