Arsenal duo Kim Little and Jennifer Beattie have been named in Shelly Kerr’s Scotland squad for the upcoming Euro 2021 qualifiers with Albania and Finland.

Lisa Evans is left out with an injury she sustained during training with the Gunners

Scotland have already been in action this year, beating Northern Ireland, Iceland and Ukraine in the Pinatar Cup that took place in Spain before lockdown and are preparing for two key matches in their group at the end of the month.

The Scots sit 2nd in their group four points behind leaders Finland but have two games in hand over them and face a crunch match in Helsinki this on October 27.

On naming her squad the former Arsenal manager Kerr said: “It feels really good as we’ve not had football to look forward to since the Pinatar Cup back in March.

“We’ve already been to a EURO Finals and we want to reach another. This is another step towards achieving that goal and it’s an exciting time.

“It’s been a difficult time but at the forefront of my mind has been that this is a global pandemic and football is secondary.

“You just need to find a different way of working and engaging with different people. It’s been really good recently for me being able to watch a lot of games recently, especially down south as the players have been involved in some big games.

“It’s exciting that we’ve got the prospect of these two matches. It was the right decision to postpone the September fixtures as the players would have been vulnerable in terms of where they were at physically, with not having played many games.

“We know Albania well and I think they’re getting better and better.

“They’ve got some good individual players. They’ll shoot from distance and try and play a bit too, if we give them time and space they’ll give us problems.

“Finland are very strong and well organised by my old coach Anna Signeul who I’ve got a lot of respect for.

“They’ll be a tough opponent to play against and they’ve proved to be a talented side so far in the group, scoring a late equaliser against Portugal these are the games you want to be involved in.”

Meanwhile Katie McCabe has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for their crunch qualifier with Ukraine in a clash between 2nd and 3rd in Group I.

Ireland travel to Kiev on Friday October 23 in a a game that should they win would put them in a strong possession to qualify as one of the best second placed teams.

Vera Pauw’s side have won 13 points from six games and are five points behind group leaders Germany who they lost 3-0 to last time out in September.

Gunners trio Lia Wälti, Noelle Maritz and Malin Gut have been named in the Switzerland squad for their Group H match with Romania away from home on Tuesday, October 27.

The last time those sides met was in November 2019 with the Swiss winning 6-0. Nils Nielsen’s side too of the group one point ahead of Belgium who Switzerland beat 2-1 during the last international break with Gut and West Ham United winger Alisha Lehmann scoring the goals.