Scotland U21 boss Billy Stark hailed the impact of Sporting Lisbon teenager Ryan Gauld after he scored twice in the 3-0 victory over Luxembourg.
The 18-year-old former Dundee United midfielder netted either side of a goal from Lewis Macleod, who plays in the Scottish Championship with Rangers.
Victory at the Stade Municipal de Differdange brought an end to Scotland’s doomed qualifying bid for the UEFA U21 Championships on a high note.
Stark said: "When you have a player of Gauld's quality it can make the difference. We've seen that with even the top teams.
"Look at Portugal on Sunday without Ronaldo. It hurts you when they're not there. Equally when they are there they can provide that moment that makes the game easier for you."
Gauld fired home the opener after 31 minutes when he curled home after decent work by Sheffield Wednesday striker Stevie May to tee him up.
Macleod added the second 10 minutes before half-time as he finished off a sweeping move that also involved Gauld and Aberdeen defender Ryan Jack.
Gauld's second came on 62 minutes as he swept the ball past Joe Frising, while he just missed out on a hat-trick with 10 minutes left after the Luxembourg keeper did well to save his low shot.
But even the comfortable final win was not enough to see Scotland through to next year's finals in the Czech Republic after they failed to beat Slovakia on Friday.
They do climb up to third spot in Group 3 but it will be the Netherlands who qualify directly to the tournament, with last week's opponents preparing for the play-offs.
Stark added: "The second goal was a terrific build-up and finish for Lewis, who was excellent too.
"Double-headers are difficult. The Slovakian game took a lot out of us so there's always that temptation to freshen things up but we decided to stick with the ones we played the other night.
"We should have done better with finishes but that was down to tired legs. We made them look ordinary by getting into a comfortable position.
"I'm heartened by the display and the way they went about things for the next campaign."