Scotland’s Women’s Euro 2022 qualification hopes suffered a huge blow with a narrow defeat to Portugal in Lisbon last night which leaves them four points behind the Portuguese and Finland in Group E with three games remaining.
With Head Coach Shelley Kerr self-isolating the Scots dominated early possession and Jen Beattie, Erin Cuthbert and Kim Little all had chances in a goalless first-half.
Just before the break Lee Alexander spilled an effort from Silva before smothering a rebound effort from Claudia Neto.
After the restart Kirsty Hanson’s cross from the left struck Silvia Rebelo and almost deflected past her own keeper.
Portugal took the lead in the minute when Tatiana Pinto’s superb pass found Ann Borges who fired the ball past Alexander.
Martha Thomas almost grabbed an equaliser from close range but Morias did well to save and the hosts held on for the victory.
Scotland now welcome Group E leaders Finland to Easter Road on Tuesday night known a victory is essential if they hope to progress to their third successive major tournament.
After the game Assistant Coach Andy Thomson who was standing in for Kerr told BBC Sportsound: “They are a good bunch, they are disappointing and devastated about the result, but they will pick themselves up and know they can still qualify in some kind of way, but they have to beat Finland with a real positive performance.
“If we play the same way as we did in the second half and move the ball quick, we’ll create opportunities. We just need to take them.”
“The players were prepared very well and Shelley led everything from behind the scenes, so that’s not an excuse for the performance or result. It is down to that bit of quality in the final third on both boxes and that’s what we lacked.”
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.
