ALTHOUGH Sweden were deserved winners of Group 4, and became the seventh and final automatic European qualifier for next summer's World Cup in Canada, Anna Signeul believes Scotland did enough in the second half to offer hope of winning the four-team play-off they will now contest.
A goal down after just six minutes, Scotland were second best throughout the first half but asserted themselves sufficiently in the second half to merit a draw before Lotta Schelin ensured her side would win all three points in front of more than 9000 enthusiastic fans at the Gamla Ullevi in Gothenburg.
"After what I saw tonight in the second half I am confident we will do well in the play-offs," said Scotland's manager. "It just wasn't meant to be our day for scoring goals, but their goalkeeper, Hedvig Lindahl, made some great saves."
The last night of qualifying saw the Netherlands and Ukraine join Italy and Scotland in the play-offs. That means the Scots will be paired with either of the higher seeded Italians or Dutch when the draw is made next week. "I don't care which of them we meet first. If we are going to reach the finals in Canada we are probably going to have to play both of them anyway," Signeul pointed out.
"I'm taking many positives from tonight's game, including Kim Little being the best player on the pitch. We aren't as good as Sweden yet, but after that second-half performance we have shown that we can now compete with the very best teams in the world.
"Gemma Fay had one of her best games for Scotland and made a fantastic save in the first half. The holding midfielders, Rachel Corsie and Leanne Crichton, got better and better as the game went on, and I felt the two central defenders also handled the Swedish attackers well too."
Needing a positive start at the Ullevi, Scotland got the opposite. A Swedish attack down the right saw Schelin lob the ball towards the unmarked Therese Sjogran and her clever backward header looped over Fay's head into the far corner.
If the execution was good, Scotland should have done better in defending the build-up, and the home side continued to dominate the first half. Schelin, their iconic player, needed just one more goal to equal the Swedish record set by Hannah Ljungberg and she had three great opportunities before the interval to do it.
The first and the third were the closest. Early in the half, she rounded Gemma Fay but her shot hit the post from an acute angle and near the end of it she was denied by a great, smothering save from the Scottish goalkeeper when it looked certain she must score.
Even amid Sweden's superiority Scotland midfielder Kim Little looked the most accomplished player on the pitch and she came into her own in the second period. The American player-of-the-season orchestrated attack after attack as her side came close to equalising on several occasions.
Only some great saves by the Swedish goalkeeper Hedvig Landahl, and a double stop on the line by captain Caroline Seger, prevented an equaliser.
It was a terrific response by the visitors, with Leanne Crichton, Jenny Beattie and Little herself all coming close, but they were hit by a sucker punch in the 75th minute.
The crowd had been willing Schelin to score all night and she finally did so, shaking off the attentions of Beattie before dispatching a low shot across Fay. There was a huge roar, repeated when the scorer's name was announced.
With the outcome of the game settled, it just remained for the joyous home side to perform a lap of honour in front of their celebrating fans. They accepted the bouquets and also the good wishes of the Scotland manager, herself a Swede, for the finals in Canada.
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