CELTIC kid Stephen Welsh insists Jozo Simunovic’s infamous Old Firm tackle on Kenny Miller was the best he’s ever seen. 

And he knows he’ll have to defend just as fiercely if Scotland Under-17s are to make the European Championship quarter finals in his colleague’s homeland when they face France tomorrow.

Scotland had to defend for their lives in Croatia against a talented Magyar side on Saturday and escaped with a 1-1 draw after the Hungarians cancelled out a first half strike from Rangers’ Zak Rudden.

It means if Scotland, who beat the Faroe Islands 2-0 in their opener, can avoid defeat against a French side who walloped Faroes 7-0, but lost their opening day fixture to Hungary, they will qualify for the last eight and be one game away from reaching the Under-17 World Cup finals in India.

Manager Scot Gemmill was full of praise for the resilience of his youngsters on Saturday and that was typified by the display of central defender Welsh. 

The 17-year-old threw himself in the way of countless Hungarian attacks and was a commanding presence at the back.

Scotland have only lost two goals in their unbeaten eight-game run in the qualifiers and finals, but playing against the French is likely to be a different prospect.

Welsh, though, is confident Scotland can spring a surprise after learning from Croatian stopper Simunovic, who cleaned out Rangers striker Miller with an explosive tackle in Celtic’s 5-1 Old Firm win.

He said: “I’ve had chances to step up to the Celtic Under-20s and train with the first team. That was some experience, to be in and around that environment. It’s good for me to train alongside guys like Kolo and Jozo. 

“Kolo Toure’s done just about everything in the game and every time you see him train or play you learn something. And Jozo’s tackle against Rangers was one of the best I’ve ever seen. I’ll need to do something like that against France. 

“France will have to play well to beat us. They’re a good team, but so are we. It’ll be a good game but I’m confident we can win.

“Against Hungary, it was only the second goal we’ve conceded in the last eight games. We hate losing goals as we’re solid as a defensive unit. We go into every game determined to keep a clean sheet so losing the goal to Hungary hurt.

“We love defending – the ugly side of it. That’s why we’re there. We relish clean sheets, putting tackles in, winning headers and we had a few clearances off the line. We put our bodies on the line in every game.”

And Welsh believes Scotland will face the French in Velika Gorica determined to stun one of the fancied teams for the title. He said: “There are a lot of positives to take from the first couple of matches. We’re unbeaten in eight games. We’d have liked to get the win, but a point wasn’t a bad return. We hate to concede goals and we’ve shown we can score goals. 

“We’ll go into the game with confidence. Hungary beat France and we managed to get a result against them. It will be difficult. They have a lot of good players and will go all-out for the win they need but we won’t play for a draw. 

“Hungary were physical and I think our fitness came into play. 

“We’re a fit team and we coped with it well. We need to make sure we rest properly and are good to go again against France.”