PEDRO MARTINEZ LOSA has named a slightly bigger squad of 25 players for the World Cup play-off match against Austria on October 6 at Hampden – and potentially a second round game against the Republic of Ireland at the national stadium five days later.
AC Milan winger Christy Grimshaw and Aston Villa's Kirsty Hanson, who is also a wide player, return. Three other players, including 92-times capped West Ham forward Lisa Evans, are also back after being included in the previous squad but dropping out with injury before the final group qualifier against the Faroe Islands earlier this month.
“The players are comfortable and feel good about what we are doing,” Martinez Losa said. “We won’t be changing much.
“We are lucky to be playing potentially two games at home so we do not need to travel which is a big benefit. We will stick to our regular routine and will work on the emotional aspects of these games and give the girls the confidence they need.”
Speaking about the return of Grimshaw, who scored two goals in the qualifying campaign, the Scotland head coach said: “She is playing with AC Milan and performing very well. She can play in the right or in the middle as an attacking midfielder.
“She is an excellent character as well as bringing big attributes to the team. She is a great addition to have back in.”
Austria, at 20, are three places ahead of Scotland in the FIFA rankings while the Republic of Ireland, managed by former Scotland head coach Vera Pauw, are three places below. The Austrians lost 1-0 to tournament winners England in the opening match of Euro 22, but beat Northern Ireland and Norway in the group before losing 2-0 to eventual finalists Germany in the quarter finals.
Even if Scotland win both the Hampden games they will not be guaranteed a place in the World Cup. Only the two best second round winners will qualify automatically for Australia and New Zealand, with the third having to take their chances in the ten team inter-confederation play offs in New Zealand in February.
Results in the group stage are also taken into account when deciding which of the second round winners qualify automatically – and Scotland are currently ranked only sixth of the nine nations involved in the play-offs. The other nations in the confederation play-offs are Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Cameroon, Senegal, Haiti, Panama, Chile, Paraguay and Papua New Guinea.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here