SCOTLAND'S injury-ravaged squad must bounce back from Wednesday's deflating 6-0 loss to England and find a way to beat Portugal in their second Euro 2017 Group D match in Rotterdam late this afternoon.

They won't, for sure, meet a side as powerful, efficient and clinical as England were in Utrecht. Nevertheless, what looked like a banker three points when the side set out for the Netherlands is anything but that now.

Steph Houghton's challenge on her Manchester City team-mate Jane Ross on Wednesday has removed the Scotland striker not just from the Sparta Stadion encounter, but also the final group game against Spain on Thursday. With Kim Little also unavailable, that's two players with 98 Scotland goals between them out of the line-up.

Lana Clelland, who deserves her chance after finishing the Italian season as top scorer with 23 goals in 22 league games for middle-of-the-table Tavagnacco, is almost certain to lead the attack. It would have been preferable had she been given a start in one of the 10en preparation games, although she was injured throughout the Cyprus Cup.

The big question is whether head coach Anna Signeul will bring other fresh faces into her side at the ground where Scotland's hopes of qualifying for the 2015 World Cup were ended.

Erin Cuthbert, surely, must start to provide attacking back-up support for Clelland, Lisa Evans and Fiona Brown. At the back, the Hibernian trio of Rachel McLauchlan, Joelle Murray and Kirsty Smith all have sound cases for coming in, while Christie Murray deserves game time following her goal against the Republic of Ireland.

Vaila Barsley, like the rest of the defence, didn't have a comfortable evening against England but her previous stand-out performances justify her starting for a sixth successive game. Portugal were vulnerable to crosses in their opening 2-0 defeat to Spain and it is only a matter of time before the six-foot defender, who scored nine headed goals in her first season at Eskilstuna United, opens her Scotland account.

“Obviously the result on Wednesday was disappointing, but we've hopefully learned some lessons from it,” the 29-year-old said. “England are a fantastic team but we didn't give them that many chances - they were just incredibly clinical with the ones they had.

“We played Sweden a few weeks ago and if you look at the stats they probably had more attempts on goal than England had, but they didn't finish them.

“I feel great going into the next game, When we reviewed the England performance all 23 players spoke up and helped us decide what we have to do better.”

Barsley was only called into the Scotland squad in emergency circumstances when there was an injury crisis ahead of the Belgium game in April. She played once for the England under-17 side, also against Belgium, but says she didn't enjoy her time in their youth squads.

“I was from a small village and when I was with England there were a lot of girls from Manchester, Liverpool, London and they were very different from me,” said Barsley, whose mother is from Shetland. “I was a country person and I just didn't fit in with the personalities. To be able to come into the Scotland squad and find the girls so relaxed and humble was probably the most amazing thing because people make your experience. We're all working hard together so I'm delighted that I'm representing Scotland.”

Barsley also had a short spell in the Arsenal reserve team, where her coach was Kelly Smith, before moving to New York and studying to be an accountant. She then worked for Ernst & Young in Manhattan. Despite the big bucks she missed football too much and joined Eskilstuna in 2013 via short spells in Iceland and a Champions League qualifying group in Bosnia with Irish club Peamount United.

In Sweden she plays against Portugal's best player, Linkopings midfielder Claudia Neto.

“She's brilliant,” Barsley said of the 29-year-old. “She's the captain and pulls all the strings in the team.”

Even so, Portugal's results this year sum up their limitations. They played back-to-back friendlies against both Northern Ireland and Wales, winning one and losing one against each country. They rarely score more than one goal in a game, but are also adept defensively.

Portugal's restricting of a rampant Spain to two first half goals indicates that a 1-0 win would be an acceptable outcome for Scotland, who, with Hayley Lauder again unable to play, will be without more than half of their qualifying group team.

Signeul says Rachel Corsie is available for selection for a game in which even a draw is likely to extinguish Scotland's aim of reaching the quarter-finals.