Scotland lose out to last minute PC.
Scotland’s women – in yellow training bibs due to a clash of colours – played Spain in their build-up to the FIH World League 2 Tournament taking place later this week in Valencia. Spain currently lie 10th in the World Rankings with Scotland seven places down, in 17th, so it was anticipated, locally, that Spain would run out winners. However, recent form shown in four test matches against the host country suggest that the gap in rankings is closer than recorded.
The match started well for the Scots with early pressure on the Spanish goal, but they were unable to convert. Spain then upped their game and pressed the Scots’ defence winning a number of penalty corners in the half.
The Scots were defending well, but a few passing errors put pressure on themselves giving the home side territory, but the young visitors managed to extricate themselves on several occasions and break upfield.
The second half was a bit more even, but, as the match progressed, pressure from the higher ranked side eventually told and a series of penalty corners was eventually rewarded by a 39th minute goal from Berta Bonastre to give Spain the 1-0 victory.
Given that around a dozen of the squad – and a squad mostly 22 or under – it was a slightly nervy at times, but overall good showing against the home side who have recently returned from a training camp with the Dutch, the current World No. 1 side.
The day was rounded of by a one-on-one shoot-out which the Spanish took 3-2
Images from the match will appear here sometime in the near future as we are live-ish from Valencia
