OLIVER BURKE admitted last night that his first start for Scotland in their World Cup qualifying win over Malta just days after he became his country's most expensive player had been "a dream come true".
Gordon Strachan gave Burke, who last week moved from Nottingham Forest to RB Leipzig in Germany in a Scottish record breaking £13m transfer, the nod to start in the Group F match.
The 19-year-old from Kirkcaldy justified the faith shown in him by his manager by performing well in an emphatic 5-1 victory in the National Stadium in Ta'Qali.
Read more: Scotland marks out of ten: A fine win in Malta and some genuinely good performances
The powerful winger, who will fly to Germany to join up with his new team-mates this week, admitted the resounding win in the Mediterranean had capped quite a memorable week for him.
“It’s a dream come true for me and I was delighted when I heard I was starting," he said. "I’m so happy. It was a fantastic match, but I felt I could definitely have done a bit better.
Read more: Malta 1 Scotland 5: Encouraging signs as campaign gets off to a flier
“But I’m always down on myself in games where I haven’t really made a massive impact in the way I wanted. But I’ll learn from my mistakes.
“I’ve had a very interesting week obviously. Everyone knows what has happened and I don’t want to keep repeating myself.
“Malta gave it their best shot against us and I thought they did very well considering and we were a bit shaky at the start of the game.
“We didn’t keep the ball well at times but I felt we just had to cool down at half time and play our normal football in the second half.
“We had to try and get some more shots off in what was a scruffy game and got the goals we needed.
“We dug deep and showed our team chemistry. I thought it was great and I’m delighted for Robert Snodgrass getting his hat-trick."
Malta, currently placed 176th in the FIFA world rankings, are the bottom seeds and Scotland were expected to win their opening game comfortably.
But Burke is determined for the national team to build on their positive start and retain their position as group leaders in their coming matches against Lithuania, Slovakia and England.
He said: “It’s a great start and we need to kick on and keep winning games. I’m looking forward to the next game at Hampden and we can get the fans behind us.
“This win can generate some big momentum for us. The boys are buzzing. It’s a fantastic start and we need to keep going on the way we’ve started.
“Personally, it’s time for me to chill out and take it all in. I haven’t really had the chance to speak to my family because I haven’t seen them for a while.
“I need to sit down and have a chill out day for once because it’s been exciting, but I need to refresh my mind and get back to doing what I do best after a nice break.
“I’m staying in Glasgow and then flying directly from there to Germany."
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