Scotland take on Finland in a crucial EURO 2022 Qualifier at Easter Road tomorrow night following Friday’s loss to Portugal.
Scotland have three matches remaining in their group, with Finland up first before they take on Cyprus and Portugal in February next year.
Claire Emslie has been ruled out through injury and has been replaced by Rachel McLauchlan. Christie Murray will be available after finishing her 14 days of self-isolation following a COVID-19 outbreak at Birmingham City.
Scotland’s last victory over Finland arrived in 2011. Doubles from Jen Beattie and Jane Ross combined with strikes from Rachel Corsie and Hayley Lauder as well as an own goal secured a 7-2 win at Tynecastle.
Scotland’s earlier match in their EURO 2022 qualification campaign, away to Finland, finished 1-0 to the hosts.
On-loan Birmingham City defender Rachel Corsie said: “We’ve trained well and are really prepared for tonight’s crucial game. Friday was incredibly disappointing and the performance wasn’t up to our usual high standards. We’re now focused on putting things right.
“The last two games have been extremely disappointing as we thought we were good enough to win the games away from home against Finland and Portugal. We had chances in both games and didn’t take them. That has come back to haunt us.
“We’ll be going all out for the win tonight now as it would be crucial for our qualification hopes. This team belongs at the major tournaments and it’s now up to us to bounce back and ensure we deliver a positive result tonight.
“Shelley not being here due to being in isolation is obviously something new for us to deal with but this group of players are resilient and can cope with challenging situations. The players have handled it really well and are well used to this situation occurring.
“It’s affecting teams across the world and has ruled out personnel from our club teams at short notice. We’ve just had to make the best of the circumstances and I think we’ve done that. Shelley has been as involved as much as she can be from afar.
“ The rest of the coaching staff and the players have come together to make it as flawless as possible. You don’t want to allow any excuses in terms of performances.”
Former Aberdeen and Celtic player Billy Stark joined the group this week behind the scenes and Rachael believes that this was a positive move.
She continued: “I think when someone of that experience joins us it’s only going to be positive. He has so many different experiences to what we have so we’ve listened and learned from him as he’s brought a few different things to the table.
“Our previous experiences will definitely help and I’m sure everyone has learned a lot from those experiences.
“We need to be more clinical in these games when the pressure is on. These big games have become more frequent in the last wee while and we need to make sure we keep pushing ourselves to ensure our standards don’t drop.
“The real disappointment is that we’re starting to grow our fan base and for a big game like tonight we know that they’d usually be there in their numbers.
“We’ve worked really hard to grow the fan base so would love for people to be at the stadium to share these experiences with us. Hopefully we’re not too far away from that being possible. Although they won’t be at Easter Road we really do feel their backing from afar, especially through social media. The players recognise that and really appreciate it.”
The Scots will find a familiar face in the Finland head coach Anna Signeul and Rachael is looking forward to seeing her old boss’
“It’s one of those special things, when you play sport, that you meet people who’ve had a real influence in your career and Anna certainly did that for a lot of our players. She was the person who offered us an opportunity to play for our national team which is such a special thing.
“I think it was an emotional experience for her last time out as Scotland means so much to her. Off the pitch it’s great to see her but on the pitch, it’s very much about business. She got the better of us last time and now we need to put that right.”
The game will be live on BBC ALBA and live updates will be available from the Scotland National Team Twitter account, @ScotlandNT.
Scotland Squad
Goalkeepers – Lee Alexander (Glasgow City) Jenna Fife (Rangers) Shannon Lynn (Vittsjö GIK)
Defenders – Jen Beattie (Arsenal), Rachael Boyle (Hibernian), Rachel Corsie (Birmingham City*), Nicola Docherty (Rangers), Hannah Godfrey (Tottenham Hotspur Women), Sophie Howard (Leicester City), Emma Mitchell (Reading FC), Kirsty Smith (Manchester United)
Midfielders – Chloe Arthur (Aston Villa), Leanne Crichton (Glasgow City), Lisa Evans (Arsenal), Lucy Graham (Everton), Sam Kerr (Glasgow City), Kim Little (Arsenal), Rachel McLauchlan (Glasgow City), Christie Murray (Birmingham City), Caroline Weir (Manchester City)
Forwards – Lizzie Arnot (Rangers), Fiona Brown (Rosengard), Erin Cuthbert (Chelsea FC), Kirsty Hanson (Manchester United), Zoe Ness (Rangers), Jane Ross (Manchester United), Martha Thomas (West Ham United), *On loan from Utah Royals
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
