Scotland kick off their bid to reach Euro 2017 away to Slovenia today (Tuesday) and head coach Anna Signeul has said there will be no room for complacency against a side ranked 44 places below them.
Signeul also expects Scotland, ranked 20th in the world, to shrug off a midweek 4-0 friendly defeat by Norway and hit the ground running for this afternoon’s match in Nova Gorica.
Star turns Kim Little and Rachel Corsie look likely to return to the line-up after Signeul chose to rest the two Seattle Reign players for the Norway friendly because of their recent National Women’s Soccer League side’s Championship semi-final encounter with Washington Spirit, and a cross-Atlantic flight.
Vittsjo GIK defender Ifeoma Dieke and Arsenal’s Emma Mitchell were also missing through injury against world No.10 side Norway at Firhill Stadium in Glasgow.
The Scotland boss was pleased with those players who stepped up, however, saying afterwards that they are the future in this Euro campaign, which will pit the Scots against Iceland, Belarus, FYR Macedonia as well as Slovenia.
The Swede spoke glowingly of Bristol Academy’s Frankie Brown, Glasgow City’s Hayley Lauder, Jenny Beattie of Manchester City and Lisa Evans of Bayern Munich, but she admitted that it was difficult to play the best teams in the world without all of her most experienced players on the pitch.
Here’s what she said after the friendly defeat in Glasgow:
On the loss to Norway:
It is disappointing, of course. It shows maybe a little our weakness and you can’t play Norway without our best players, but we have some really positive things we can take from this game. We’re not doing it consistently, but I think against France away we conceded one goal and that was exactly the second goal against Norway, the run in the front post and a quality cross in and quality finish, otherwise we defended very well at the posts and that’s something we’ve been working on.
On picking themselves up from the loss:
Yes, we look at it and when we go to Slovenia it’s important that we don’t lose self confidence, just learn from it and stay positive. We are a very positive team and can’t wait until Tuesday, you know how it feels when you lose you want to play the next game immediately. As I said to the players afterwards, the focus is on Slovenia.
On Slovenia:
When we got this draw, which we all think is a good one for Scotland and a great opportunity, our biggest enemy is maybe being complacent and thinking that it’s an easy draw. But, I really feel when I meet all the players that they are so focused on the task and we will not be going to Slovenia and thinking that we have won that game. The players know that this is the focus and we really need to play for it and that feels very good.
On resting Rachel Corsie and Kim Little:
With having Rachel and Kim in the USA, that’s an eight hour time difference and then playing in that [Championship] game on Sunday night, that was very demanding and we couldn’t afford to play them and have them injured, so we played safe.
On those who did play:
Lisa [Evans] was grand and she was fit from the first minute to the 91st minute. For Kirsty [Smith] it was really tough at the beginning, but she learned a lot. I think Jennifer Beattie is a class better than she was last season, I’m expecting a lot from her this campaign. Hayley [Lauder] she’s had a goodseason and Frankie [Brown] had a good game. It’s just experience to play these games. I was really pleased with the young players coming in, in the second half, I know Norway also made some substitutions, but they showed great pace, were strong, stood up in tackles and had good technique and these are the players that should come into this campaign now because they are the future.
Words and Images by Catherine Etoe
SHE KICKS – the online community for women’s football
