Pressure is off as Scots secure Euro 2013 play-off place

Monday 17 September 2012

SCOTLAND will face France in their final Group 4 match at Tynecastle on Wednesday night secure in the knowledge that they have already qualified for the Euro 2013 play-offs after beating Wales 2-1 on Saturday in Llanelli.

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With the draw for next month's play-offs being made in Nyon on Friday, it looks as if the options for Scotland, who will be unseeded, have narrowed down to Spain, Russia and either Norway or Iceland, who play each other on Wednesday. The Scots lost to the Russians in the 2009 Euro play-offs, despite winning the away leg.

"I honestly think we can beat any of the teams we are likely to meet," said coach Anna Signeul yesterday. "They all have different styles, but I have every faith in my players."For the fourth time in seven qualifying matches Scotland conceded the first goal against Wales, but still achieved the result they needed with something to spare. Chelsea's Helen Lander put the home side ahead, but that was cancelled out by Jo Love's powerful header just before the interval. Kim Little fired home the winner midway through a second half which could have yielded more Scottish goals but for the excellence of Liverpool goalkeeper Nicola Davies.That made it three wins out of four on the road for Signeul's side, and that laid the foundation for finishing second in Group 4. The only blip was a 2-0 defeat by France in Le Havre, and even then it took late goals for the group winners to seal the points.France, who have maximum points from seven games, tied up the group with an easy 4-0 win over the Republic of Ireland, also on Saturday. There is still a statistical chance of Scotland qualifying automatically for the Euro finals in Sweden next summer as the best runners-up in the seven groups, but they needed not only to beat Wales and France, but improve their goal difference by five.The narrow win over Wales put paid to that already slim prospect, as beating France by any margin will be a significant achievement. The French were semi-finalists in both the Olympics and last year's World Cup in Germany, and are fifth in the Fifa rankings."We made it a bit more difficult for ourselves against Wales than we should have, but that's the nature of these games," admitted Signeul. "We wanted to score a couple more goals to give ourselves a chance of qualifying automatically, but we have probably given ourselves too much to do now."It wasn't that we lacked chances, but their goalkeeper was excellent. It feels good to have made the play-offs. It also means we can enjoy the last game against France and a good result would give us confidence for the play-offs."The Tynecastle game, which kicks off at 5pm, is being televised live on BBC Alba.

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Pressure is off as Scots secure Euro 2013 play-off place

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