ANGUS BEITH believes Scotland can put the controversy surrounding Jack Harper's omission from the Under-19 squad behind them by beating Italy today.
Ricky Sbragia's side got off to a brilliant start as they attempt to qualify for the finals in Greece in July by beating Elite Round hosts Austria in the opening game on Thursday.
The Under-19s face a stiff examination this morning when they play Italy in Vienna, but they know a win would almost certainly guarantee qualification, after the Italians drew against Croatia.
The squad announcement was overshadowed by the reaction in Scotland to Sbragia's surprise decision to leave out Real Madrid striker Harper in favour of "a physical side and runners".
But Beith, who is loan at Stirling Albion, is convinced Scotland can beat the Azzurri and make history.
He said: "No-one is getting carried away by any means, but the result has put us in a great position and qualification is in our own hands now. We're going in expecting to win. We feel that confident.
"Beating Austria in the first game was a great start, especially when it was a home game for them. I think mentally it was important for us too to kick off with a win, because we didn't manage that in the last qualifying round and it maybe affected us a bit. But, no, instead of worrying about playing catch-up or anything like that we can look forward to the Italy game with confidence.
"Every one of the boys is full of belief now and we can't wait to get playing again. We did a lot of preparation work and watched a bit of Austria, so we knew what we were going to be up against.
"We tried out a different system, to be narrower than we usually are, and stop them playing through the middle where they are at their strongest. The sending off helped but we got the goal that we needed and after that, apart from a few minutes at the end when they scored to make it 2-1, I thought we looked pretty comfortable."
Beith is convinced Italy are beatable after the young Scots went on a spying mission.
He revealed: "The coaching staff took us to watch the game between Italy and Croatia, and both teams had a lot of good players as you'd expect given how well they tend to do on the international stage. Having said that, there's nothing to fear for us and we want to play to our own strengths and give them something to think about."
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