Gordon Strachan is forever extolling the virtues of having as many of his Scotland players plying their trade at the highest possible level for their clubs, and it doesn’t get much higher than the Champions League.

The national manager’s ethos is that his squad sh`ould be filled with as many players as possible who are going up against the very best, and leaving aside a rather conspicuous Callum McGregor-shaped hole in that theory, the plan seems sound enough.

That’s why there is a six-man Celtic contingent who will pull on the dark blue fresh from helping Brendan Rodgers’s side to gatecrash European football’s top table once more.

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Glasgow Times: Win-win: James Forrest thinks that Celtic's players experience in Astana and Rosenborg will help Scotland handle the pressure of a tough away fixture in Lithuania.

For one of those number, winger James Forrest – arguably the form player of the lot – the feel-good factor that the Celtic group bring to the Scotland party can only be a benefit for the national side.

“There are so many of the Celtic boys here, and I think that’s good for Scotland because Celtic are doing so well and the players are confident,” said Forrest.

“We can only take that into the national team and help Scotland as well.

“The players here are confident too and they are doing well at their clubs as well, but in the last couple of games I feel that because Celtic have been doing so well that it has took that on to the Scotland performances.

“I think you’ve seen that in the results as well, and we’re ready to give it our best and hopefully get two more good results here.

“With Celtic you are playing in Europe and you are testing yourself against players who play Champions League football.

“That’s what you want to do, and international level is similar to Champions League, so getting the experience of that definitely helps.”

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Friday night’s trip to take on Lithuania in Vilnius has all the ingredients for a very Scottish catastrophe. A tricky and underrated opponent in a must-win away game, a tight stadium and even worse, a plastic pitch of debatable quality.

And let’s not forget that one of our number, St Johnstone, came a cropper here just a few weeks ago to FK Trakai in the Europa League qualifiers.

It could all make for a nervy evening for the Tartan Army, but Forrest reckons that if the Celtic players can handle the pressure cookers of Astana and Rosenborg, then they can handle the 5067-capacity Vilniaus LFF stadionas.

“It’s a test of character going to places like Kazakhstan or Norway,” he said.

“It’s different games and different places you travel to, so it all adds up, gives you experience, and makes you become a better player.

“It’s different players, different nationalities and different ways of playing, so you get to test yourself against different levels.

“You could say going to Lithuania is similar. Scotland have played them a few times before, so we’ve done that with Celtic [qualified for the Champions League] and there’s a lot of players here with a lot of caps.

“So, while the Lithuania game will be hard, the boys will be able to cope.”

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Of course, the Celtic connection in the Scotland squad could have been even greater had manager Strachan bowed to popular, if not universal, opinion and called up another of Forrest’s teammates in McGregor.

“At the end of last season Callum was in very good form, he did really well and he’s started this season on form as well which is good for him,” Forrest said.

“Hopefully he just needs to wait for his chance and hopefully it will come for him.

“It shows you the quality we have. Midfield is a really strong position for us, across the midfield there are two or three players who can play in every position, and it’s obviously good for he manager that he can choose from so many players.”

Forrest admits that both of the forthcoming matches are of the must-win variety if Scotland are to have any hope of qualifying for the World Cup in Russia next year.

But he doesn’t think that there is any added pressure on Scottish shoulders for Friday’s match over any other game they go into at this level.

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“I think that when you play with Scotland and you’re trying to qualify for a tournament, every game is a big pressure game,” he said.

“We know it’s not going to be an easy game. You think it’s Lithuania and it’s going to be easy, but it’s not, it’s international football.

“I’ve seen that the last five or six times that Scotland played Lithuania there’s only been a goal in the game, so we know it’s going to be tough and we’ll have to be ready from the start.

“We always say to take every game at a time, and every game is more and more important if you can still qualify.

“We know we need to win, but we’ll take Lithuania first and then we’ll see what happens on Monday.”