Scotland’s hopes of a place in the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 ended last night in the capital thanks to a very late goal from Finland.
Despite dominating the match throughout Scotland failed to find a way past the visitors at Easter Road in the final fixture of 2020.
Jennifer Beattie and Kim Little both had chances in the first half then after the break Martha Thomas, Lisa Evans and Caroline Weir all went close while Zoe Ness was denied by a great save from Tinja-Riikka Korpela.
Hibs’ full back Rachael Boyle (pictured) came on as a 64th minute substitution for Jane Ross but was unable to help secure a breakthrough.
In the dying minutes with Scotland chasing a winner, Finland broke on the break and secured qualification with a fortunate goal.
Amanda Rantanen’s shot was saved by Lee Alexander but the rebound bounced up off the Finnish player’s face and into the bottom corner which ended Scotland’s qualification hopes.
After the final whistle assistant coach Andy Thomson, who was standing in for Shelley Kerr due to her being in isolation after close contact with a positive Covid-19 case told BBC Scotland: “After a game, straight away people’s emotions are running high.
“We’ll wait and see after we’ve calmed down and analyse and evaluate it and see how we move forward but that’s not for this moment in time, it’s for later.
“[Shelley Kerr] said you really can’t legislate for what happened tonight. We need to do better in the final third.”
Arsenal midfielder Lisa Evans added: “Everyone needs to look within themselves and be thinking, ‘what can I do better?
“We’ve got such a good squad. I don’t think we’ve got the full potential out of the squad. Professionalism day in, day out. There is professionalism. We need more of it.
“We need game management, we need to manage situations better. Quality needs to be better across the board. We need to push more, get more out of each other. Staff need to get more out of us.
“That’s one thing about this squad, we’ll all get around each other. We’ll be disappointed. It’s going to be hard sitting at home watching the Euros in England.”
Scotland: Alexander, Smith, Corsie, Beattie, Little, Weir, Evans, Ross (Boyle, ’64), Murray (Graham, ’64), Thomas (Ness, ’77), Cuthbert
Unused subs: Lynn, Fife, Godfrey, Docherty, Crichton, Arthur, Howard, Brown, Arnot
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.
