Scots Women defeat Wales to earn place in UEFA Women’s play-off

Scotland Women came from behind to defeat Wales 2-1 in Llanelli on Saturday evening and claim a place in the UEFA Women’s Euro play-offs, but boss Anna Signeul was left to rue a missed opportunity to qualify outright, writes RICHARD PAYNE.

It is still possible for Scotland to reach next year’s finals in Sweden without going through the play-offs, though it is unlikely given they now require at least a four-goal win against undefeated group leaders France.

Despite a positive start from the Scots, it was Wales, needing a win to stay in contention, who took the lead when Gwen Harris’ shot was parried by Gemma Fay and Helen Lander swept in the rebound. Jo Love levelled for the visitors with a header just before the break from Kim Little’s corner. Arsenal ace Little grabbed what proved to be the winner with 22 minutes left when she beat two Welsh defenders before unleashing a fierce strike from the edge of the box.

“We deserved to win because we were the better team – it could have been more but for a fantastic goalkeeper.” said Signeul. “Any problems we had were problems we forced on ourselves rather than them creating them. But we knew how they were going to play and I think we dealt with that very well. We are very pleased with the team performance. We went into the game thinking we could score a couple more so we could compete to be best runners-up but now we need four goals against France.”

Scotland’s final Group 4 match against leaders France takes place at Tynecastle on Wednesday with a 5pm kick-off. Admission is £5 for adults and £2 for kids.