Switzerland manager Vladimir Petkovic has conceded Rangers striker Cedric Itten's international breakthrough came about by accident.
Rangers made the shock move for the former St Gallen hitman as well as a swoop for Anderlecht star Kemar Roofe in a stunning £8.5m deal as Steven Gerrard made a transfer statement.
The 23-year-old was handed his international debut last year by Petkovic in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Georgia and he came on as a sub for the last 19 minutes to grab the only goal of the game six minutes later.
He followed that up days later by grabbing a double in a 6-1 walloping of Gibraltar to leave him with an impressive record of three goals in just two caps.
But Petkovic revealed he only played because of a late injury to Atalanta star Remo Freuler.
He said: "When I called up Cedric Itten, it was really only to give him a taste of the international football experience, I wasn't going to play him.
"But what happened was the day before the game, Remo Freuler got injured in training and that meant there was a space on the bench for him. We actually had quite a few injuries for the game against Georgia.
"And Remo's bad luck became Cedric's good fortune.
"I had only seen him for a couple of days in training, but I immediately liked what I saw.
"We had played 71 minutes and we could not break down the Georgians, so I decided to take a chance and send on Cedric.
"And of course what happened? He scored a goal of immense importance a few minutes later!
"This is a boy with a lot of quality. It was an important first step for him and the signal to me that he could comfortably make the step-up to international football.
"And he proved that a few days later when he scored two further goals against Gibraltar.
"He's a player who fits into our team's attacking qualities. He needed a bit of luck, but he's taken his opportunity and he's in the squad on merit."
