Corsie eyes ton milestone in captain role
SCOTLAND captain Rachel Corsie won’t need to rely on her professional qualification to work out that 99 plus one equals 100.
The 28- year- old, who is a chartered accountant, will reach the ton of international caps when her side play Poland in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday. She edged to within one of the milestone on Thursday night when Scotland beat Belarus 2- 1 at Falkirk Stadium.
The result, which didn’t reflect the home side’s almost total dominance of the 90 minutes, kept Scotland’s World Cup hopes alive. They are now three points behind Group 2 leaders and top seeds Switzerland and five ahead of third placed Poland.
“We won – that’s about all you could say,” Corsie said of the narrow win over bottom nation Belarus.
“I don’t think we necessarily played poorly. We didn’t capitalise early on and then when you go a goal behind they sit behind the ball.
“We started to get anxious and force it a bit, but we got there in the end.”
Two goals from Chelsea’s Er in Cuthbert, after Belarus had scored with their only shot on target in the entire 90 minutes, came to the rescue.
Only the group winners will qualify automatically for next summer’s World Cup in France. The four best runners-up in the seven groups will play off for the final European place.
Scotland beat Poland 3-0 at St Mirren’s ground in April, but again the scoreline did not reflect the game.
The visitors looked the more likely to score until PSG’s Paulina Dudek was sent off with 15 minutes remaining. All the Scotland goals came when the Poles were down to 10.
“We saw at Paisley how they have quality all over the park,” Corsie pointed out. “It’s not a game we can take lightly – we know we have to go there and win the first and second balls, the tackles and the challenges.
“That’s what they’re about – they’ll definitely make it difficult at home,” she said.
“It will be special if I get to the 100 caps. I’ve had a difficult 18 months with some injuries, so it’s nice to have started this year and feel good.”