Ross McCrorie is desperate to qualify for the European Championships before his Scotland under-21s career comes to a natural end.
The young Scots have not qualified for the finals since 1996 when they finished fourth.
Scot Gemmill’s side have 11 points from six Group 4 matches and can go within a point of leaders Czech Republic when they meet in Tynecastle on Friday night.
Aberdeen midfielder McCrorie is 22 and running out of time and summed up the importance of getting to the finals.
He said: “It is massive. It has been that long since the under-21s have actually done it.
“You can see the squad we’ve got. We have a really talented team here, a lot of top players and I don’t see any reason why we can’t go and get to the finals.”
McCrorie is confident of taking the scalp of the Czechs after their goalless draw in Uherske Hradiste a year ago.
He said: “We have a good chance. If you look at our team, we have a real good chance, we played the Czech Republic already, we drew with them over there which is not an easy place to go.
“We had a few chances to put them to bed but we have a good chance of doing something on Friday.”
McCrorie put his impressive start to his Aberdeen career down to getting a regular game.
He said: “For any players if they are playing a lot of games they’re only going to get better.
“But the only way you can play games is if you keep performances up so it’s up to me to keep playing well, keep my performances and keep getting picked by the manager. I just want to keep doing the best I can for Aberdeen.”
McCrorie’s twin brother, Robby, plays for Livingston on loan from Rangers and is in Steve Clarke’s squad for the upcoming tripleheader against Israel, Slovakia and Czech Republic.
The Pittodrie player said: “I’m proud of him, I’m absolutely buzzing for him. That’s him got in the last two squads. He went out on loan, he knew he had to play games and he is reaping those rewards.”
