Scotland international takes major step towards Champions League with eight year first

McKenna, 29, had endured a painful summer with the Scotland team at the World Cup, missing the opening two group games of the tournament against Haiti and Morocco with injury, only to make a huge error upon his return to the starting XI against Brazil as Scotland crashed out of the tournament at the group stages with a 3-0 defeat.

The ex-Aberdeen defender has responded well though, and was on the scoresheet in last week’s thumping 5-1 first-leg win over the Lithuanian outfit. Looking to book their spot in the final qualification round, McKenna saw his side take an early lead through Lukas Kacavenda (17) in Kaunas, before Josip Misic (30) gave them a 2-0 lead on the night shortly afterwards, effectively ending the tie as a contest.

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However, the hosts were handed a chance to restore some pride just two minutes after Misic’s goal when goalkeeper Ivan Filipovic was shown a straight red card after misjudging his run and clumsily bringing down Motiejus Burba just outside the area. Italian referee Davide Massa gave the 31-year-old stopper his marching orders for a professional foul. Back-up goalkeeper Ivan Nevistic was introduced as a substitute and is now in line to start for Dinamo Zagreb in the final qualification stage.

Kauno Zalgiris would pull one back early in the second half via a 56th-minute Gabriel Debeljuh strike. However, it was Mario Kovacevic’s side who booked their place in the next round of the Champions League qualifiers, scoring seven goals over two legs in European competition for the first time since a 7-2 aggregate win over Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the 2018/19 Champions League qualifiers.

“We can be satisfied, our main goal was to record another victory, we succeeded in that and that makes us happy,” said head coach Kovacevic. “We could divide the game into two parts, up to the red card and after it. We scored two nice goals, but even then we made too many mistakes and allowed Zalgiris some things.

“You can never relax in football, we got a red card, the host got wings, we blocked... We didn't allow them much after that, but we couldn't do any more either. We conceded that one goal, we spent a little more than we wanted, but the main task was to win again, we succeeded in that and that makes us happy. In three days we have a league game against Rudes and we have to prepare.”

McKenna, who last played in the Champions League with FC Copenhagen two years ago, will now face a battle with FK Viking for a place in the League Phase of the competition. It has been confirmed that Dinamo Zagreb will be at home for the first-leg on August 18, before they travel to the Lyse Arena in Norway for the crucial second-leg on August 26.