Signeul rues key lapses as Scots lose
ANNA Signeul insisted Scotland Women didn’t deserve to lose after they suffered a damaging 2-1 defeat by Portugal in their second match at Euro 2017 last night.
The Scots dominated the opening 25 minutes at Rotterdam’s Sparta Stadion. But they paid for their missed chances when they lost a dreadful goal and set their opponents on their way to their first-ever win in the championship.
Striker Lana Clelland missed two glorious early chances while central defender Vaila Barsley was badly at fault for the goal which changed the game.
Signeul refused to blame individuals for the Group D defeat, which leaves Scotland needing to beat Spain by two clear goals and hope England also beat Portugal in the group’s final games.
“We lose as a team and that’s important,” the head coach said. “We’re not blaming individual players in any way here.
“We should have been up 2-0 at one point in the first half and unfortunately we couldn’t put the ball in the net. It’s also an unlucky first goal, but it puts us on the back foot in the game.
“We came back into it in the second half and of course we have to try to throw everything forward – then we are done on the counter. I think we deserved at least a 2-2.”
Teenage substitute Erin Cuthbert briefly gave Scotland hope by scoring her country’s first goal at a major tournament to cancel out Trindade Coruche Mendes’ first-half opener, but Portugal regained the lead through Ana Leita four minutes later.
Scotland, thrashed 6-0 by England in their first game on Wednesday, almost equalised again with five minutes left but Caroline Weir’s shot hit a post.