Losa has chance to stake claim for finals

WOMEN’S WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

SCOTLAND can take a big step towards achieving at least a second-place finish in Group B when they play Ukraine in World Cup qualifying at Hampden tonight. The second seeds have nine points from their opening three qualifiers while third-seeded Ukraine are coming off a 6-0 home loss to Spain after beating the Faroe Islands 4-0 in their first fixture.

Top seeds Spain have won their last 15 games, often by huge margins, and a realistic appraisal is that they will top the group and claim the automatic place for the 2023 finals in Australia and New Zealand. Finishing second and progressing to the play-offs probably offers the best chance of qualification for Pedro Martinez Losa and his players.

Scotland play Spain in Seville on Tuesday, but the first objective is to maintain their 100 per cent record tonight. “We are targeting six points but we have to get three first,” Martinez Losa confirmed of the double-header.

The nations have met three times before, with Ukraine winning home and away in Euro 2009 qualifying. They were ranked 16th in the world at the time, but are now a worst-ever 31st and lost 3-0 to Scotland in the Pinatar Cup 20 months ago.

They are likely to be galvanised by the appointment earlier this month of former Barcelona Champions League winner Lluis Cortes as head coach. Nevertheless, he has had only four days to work with his new players ahead of his first game tonight.

“He will probably try to implement the philosophy and the experiences he has had at Barcelona,” Martinez Losa said of his fellow Spaniard. “I’m sure he will do a fantastic job. In my time in Spain he wasn’t in the game and after that we didn’t face each other in competition. We know each other and have had a couple of conversations, but further than that nothing.”