RICKY SBRAGIA hopes his Scotland kids can stand up to the physical challenges this week as they face three crunch Euro qualifiers.

The Under-19 side face Austria tomorrow before taking on Italy two days later and rounding off their hat-trick of fixtures against Croatia next week as they bid to reach the European Championship finals in Greece this summer.

Boss Sbragia has opted for a more physical squad in a bid to combat the approach of their Group 6 rivals, and is keen to see his side mix it with some of the brightest young talent on the continent.

He said: "It would be great to have eleven technical players, but that doesn't happen now. The more games I see, the more it is becoming physical and the height factor. It has gone back to that now.

"They say 'let's play from the back'. There are not many teams that play from the back now, maybe the top four or five. They launch it and play off the second ball.

"Set-plays are a big part of it now. We lost a set-play against Finland and one against Norway. At that time, we were on the edge of maybe being too small and it was a concern.

"I looked at what I saw in Austria, Italy and Croatia - and they are big, physical teams - so that is the idea behind the squad I have got now.

"If it had been different depending on the draw, it might have been a different squad."