SCOTLAND, still reeling from losing 6-0 to England on Wednesday night, will go into Sunday's second Group D game against Portugal missing two players who have scored almost 100 international goals between them.
Star player Kim Little, who has 48, was ruled out of the Euros with an ACL injury and the latest casualty in what seems to be a never-ending catalogue of misfortune for the national side is striker Jane Ross. She is Scotland's second-top scorer of all time behind Julie Fleeting, having notched her 50th goal against Romania last month.
Ross was taken off in the second half with an injured shoulder and an initial scan has revealed damaged ligaments.
Ironically the yellow card challenge was inflicted by her club team-mate Steph Houghton, the Manchester City and England captain. Ross will almost certainly be replaced by Lana Clelland.
The former Spartans player was top scorer in Serie A last season despite playing for mid-table UPC Tavagnacco. She did well when coming on for the last 20 minutes against the Republic of Ireland a fortnight ago and will relish the opportunity of a rare start against Portugal.
The game is now a must-win for the Scots, but head coach Anna Signeul refused to say if there would be widespread changes on top of the enforced one. The England game in Utrecht was watched by a television audience of 2.2 million on Channel 4, which would have added to the reputational damage caused by the scoreline.
Signeul had hoped the tournament would provide a major boost for women's football in Scotland – but that will only happen if the side performs much better in their two remaining group matches. The defence did not come out of the England game looking good, but the head coach refused to point the finger at individual players.
“It's a team and there has to be collective responsibility for what happens on the pitch,” she said. “We don't blame individuals. We have a lot of good players but we didn't perform on all levels on the night so we need to look at that and see what we can do against Portugal.
“I do think we met a very, very good English team – probably the best I've seen and with some fantastic players. Jodie Taylor scores from every opportunity she gets. She's clinical and they have great players in other positions on the pitch and are physically tough too.
“If you look at the statistics, that's what's a bit disheartening because we had seven corners to their four and we were actually not bad in ball possession either – 57 per cent to them and 43 per cent to us.
“It's not a 6-0 game, but unfortunately there were six goals in it. We have to say that was not good so where are the faults and how can we correct them? Playing at this level is a brutal learning experience and it's also about decision making under pressure.”
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