Five Scottish Premiership stars play for Australia in Wembley defeat

A host of Scottish Premiership stars have been in action in every corner of the globe as they represent their countries in international action.

Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen, St Mirren and Hibs all have players away with their national teams this week as domestic action makes way for qualifiers and friendlies.

Australia played England at Wembley on Friday night with no fewer than five players representing Scotland’s top-flight.

Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game as Gareth Southgate’s men ran out 1-0 winners.

Hibs star Martin Boyle started the game alongside Hearts defender Kye Rowles St Mirren pair Keanu Baccus and Ryan Strain.

Boyle’s Easter Road teammate Lewis Miller was brought on from the bench in the second half, with Scottish-born Harry Souttar, former Dundee United player Aziz Behich and ex Celtic youngster Jackson Irvine also all taking part.

In Dublin Hoops defender Liam Scales made his international debut for Republic of Ireland in a 2-0 defeat to Greece with former Celtic Park hero Giorgios Giakoumakis scoring a trademark bullet header.

Scales’ Parkhead teammate Mikey Johnstone made his return from injury when he came off the bench in the game as Aberdeen midfielder Jamie McGrath was an unused sub.

Over the other end of the planet three Celtic players were in action as Japan beat Canada 4-1 in Niigata.

Alistair Johnston started at right-back with Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate both coming off the bench for the hosts in the second-half.

Meanwhile in South America, Rangers midfielder Jose Cifuentes started as Ecaudor beat Bolivia 2-1 thanks to a 96th minute winner.

Celtic winger Luis Palma played 90 minutes for Honduras as they drew 0-0 with Cuba in the CONCACAF Nations League and teammate Hyeongyu Oh was an unused sub for South Korea in their 4-0 win over Tunisia.

On Thursday Hoops captain Callum McGregor was the only Premiership player to take part in Scotland’s 2-0 defeat to Spain and Rangers defender Borna Barisic started for Croatia against Turkey as they fell to their first ever home defeat in Euros qualifiers.

Rangers loanee Ianis Hagi, who is currently playing for Alaves in Spain, came off the bench as Romania were held to a 0-0 draw against Belarus.

And Celtic defender Gustaf Lagerbielke was on the scoresheet for Sweden in their 3-1 win over Moldova in Stockholm.

Aberdeen pair Richard Jensen and Bojan Miovski are both included in their respective squads for Saturday’s games as Finland prepare to take on Slovenia and North Macedonia play Ukraine in Prague.