SCOTLAND women's 2015 World Cup hopes suffered a damaging setback after they lost a thrilling game at Fir Park that could have produced many more goals, but Anna Signeul insisted her side are not out of it yet.

Sweden just about deserved the win which took them level with the Scots at the top of Group 4. They are behind on goal difference but have a game in hand, making them favourites for the automatic slot in Canada next summer, although the rematch between the sides in Gothenburg in September could yet prove decisive.

Scotland coach Signeul refused to throw in the towel and accept her side are once again destined for the play-offs. "We will recover and rest before we play Northern Ireland on Thursday night," she said "We'll aim to score as many goals as we can, then do the same against the Faroes at home.

"If we can do that we will go to Gothenburg and try to win it and get the automatic qualifying place. We showed in the first half we can go over there and do it."

Signeul and her players were left ruing the goals they conceded - two were from identical corners and the third followed a mistake by goalkeeper and captain Gemma Fay.

"We were a little bit unlucky in terms of the time their goals came," Signeul said. "We knew they were very good at corners. It's so disappointing to lose goals like that."

The visitors opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Sara Thunebro aimed a corner from the right towards five Swedish players standing behind each other in the box. Four peeled away and the last, Caroline Seger, was left unmarked to curl a clever lob beyond Fay.

Scotland, who had won all six of their previous games, had a quick chance to equalise when Lotta Schelin, the star of the Swedish side, made a hash of a pass back to goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl. Home striker Jane Ross latched on to it but hesitated before shooting, allowing Nilla Fischer to make a saving tackle.

Having survived that, the Swedes weren't so fortunate in the 19th minute. Lindahl gave away a free-kick for handling the ball just outside her box and when Kim Little's goal attempt hit the arm of Sofia Jakobsson in the wall, German referee Bibiana Steinhouse had no hesitation in awarding a penalty as well as showing a yellow card to the midfielder.

Little, who has scored six penalties in 11 games for her American club Seattle Reign this season, made no mistake from the spot to level the game at 1-1 and score the first goal against Sweden in the group.

However, they regained the lead after 27 minutes with a goal that must have infuriated Signeul. An almost identical corner again led to a Seger shot. This time it was blocked, but Kosovare Asllani touched the ball past Fay from close range.

The same player almost made it 3-1 six minutes from the interval with a terrific low shot that hit the base of Fay's far post and rebounded to safety. Ross then had the ball in the net at the other end, but was ruled offside, a decision Signeul later disputed.

Sweden got their third goal seven minutes into the second period when Fay dropped Lotta Schelin's cross, allowing Asllani, to prod home her second goal.

That, understandably, took much of the sting out of the game, but after a lull both sides created numerous chances in the closing quarter.

Hayley Lauder, Little and Lisa Evans all came close for the Scots, while at the other end Schelin hit the post with a low shot.

Scotland (4-1-4-1): Fay; Brown, Dieke, Beattie, Lauder; Corsie; Love (Murray 80), Sneddon (Mitchell 46), Little, Evans; J Ross

Booked: Sneddon

Sweden (4-1-3-2): Lindahl; Rubensson, Fischer, Berglund, Thunebro; Seger; Jacobsson (Pettersson 46), Asllani, Folkesson; Sjogran (Appleqvist 88), Schelin, Fischer

Booked: Jacobsson, Pettersson

Referee: B Steinhouse (Ger)

Attendance: 2150