Scotland secure series 2-1 with penalty shoot-out win
With ‘The Italian Series’ standing at one match each, Scotland’s women kept their supporters on the edge of their seats as they took the third match – and the series – with a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Going into the final encounter of the three-match series honours even, both sides had a hand on the trophy making the third, and final, match a ‘winner-takes-all’.
The game flowed back and forth from the push-back, with both sides sharing possession, but it was Italy who had the first shot on goal, – Valentina Braconi’s reverse shot flying across the front of Nikki Cochrane’s goal – but it was Scotland that scored the first goal from an Amy Costello penalty corner strike into the bottom corner for 1-0.
At the end of the first quarter, the Scots had to work hard to prevent the equaliser as a succession of penalty corner’s for Italy went unrewarded.
As the second quarter progressed, Italy began to dominate proceedings, pulling a couple of fine saves from Watsonian, Lucy Camlin – the Scots keepers were on for alternate quarters – but pressure eventually told as they equalised in the 27th minute from another penalty corner, the final shot on goal squeezing under Costello’s stick and being finished off by Maria Garraffo as the ball trickled towards the net.
They then repeated the feat on the stroke of half time when another penalty corner melee ended with Lara Oviedo diving in to finish off for the lead.
The Italians started the second half as they had finished the first with pressure on the Scotland defence making Cochrane – back in goal – work hard on the floor to keep the ball out, but it was the home side that scored to draw the match level. Depending on breaks up field to gain ground, the Scots took advantage of Italy’s defence lying high and Charlotte Watson broke clear and got her pass away to Sarah Jamieson prowling in the opposition D. She collected the ball on her reverse and turning the defence, slammed a reverse strike past Martina Chirico for the equaliser.
The final quarter was another end-to-end affair, with Italy almost snatching the match at the death, but Valentina Braconi’s shot went high.
So, penalty shoot-out it was. With each team nominating a keeper and five strikers, Scotland were first up – and first on the score sheet as Jamieson rounded the keeper for her goal. Unfortunately for Italy, all their penalties were saved or missed and it was down to Heather Howie and Lexi Sabatelli to beat the keeper, giving the Scots a 3-0 penalty shoot-out win and a 5-2 match win, Series win and the Trophy.
After the match, Scotland women’s Interim Head Coach, Neil Menzies said, “Given the lack of the experience in the squad I was generally happy with the overall performances over the series. There were obviously periods where things were not so good but there were some periods that were extremely encouraging, particularly because of the relative performances by the younger and less experienced members of the squad.
“Winning the penalty shoot-out and getting a series win was the icing on the cake.”
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days.
