Just when you thought the 2024/25 season was over, up pop four internationals in the space of a week and a half. And that’s after the first round draw for the 2025/26 League Cup has been carried out. Football never ends these days, does it?
First up, it’s Scotland’s women and their final two matches of the Nations League campaign. We’ll get to the final game on Tuesday, but tonight it’s a pretty crucial match as Scotland host Austria at Hampden. Kick off is 7.35pm, and if you can’t make it along then it’s live on BBC Alba.
Last time the Austrians visited Hampden, Scotland sent them home defeated and out of the World Cup 2023 playoffs. It took until extra time after a goalless ninety minutes, but Abi Harrison was there with the crucial goal that took Scotland through the playoff final.
Maybe we’ll skip over what happened next though.
The only other time Austria have visited Scotland was way back in qualifying for World Cup 2003. The match at Almondvale was a 5-0 win for Scotland thanks to a hat trick from Julie Fleeting as well as goals from Stacey Cook and Pauline Hammill. No footage of this one though.
Given Scotland also won 2-1 in Austria in that campaign, and we had a 3-1 win over Austria in the 2017 Cyprus Cup…
Scotland went into this Nations League campaign with a 100% record against Austria. But that all ended in the opening fixture in February as Lilli Purtscheller scored the only goal of the game for the hosts.
The campaign hasn’t got any better. On match day two, Emma Lawton gave Scotland the lead at Hampden against the Netherlands, but second half goals from Lineth Beerensteyn and Chasity Grant gave the Dutch the win.
The two games against Germany in April were even worse news. A 4-0 defeat at Tannadice thanks to goals from Elisa Senss, Cora Zicai and Lea Schuller, as well as a Sophie Howard own goal, gave us a sense of foreboding going to Germany.
However, at half time in that match, Scotland were a goal up thanks to Caroline Weir. But there was a devastating period of 16 minutes in the second half. Selina Cerci equalised on 51 minutes, and put Germany in front on 57 minutes. Gionvanna Hoffman then scored goals in the 64th and 65th minutes before Laura Freigang made it 5-1 in the 67th minute. There was still time about ten minutes later for Cerci to complete her hat trick and give the Germans a 6-1 victory.
Those two big wins are why the Germans are seven goals ahead of the Dutch in the table right now. The game in Germany between them and the Netherlands tonight is going to pretty much decide who tops the table at this point – particularly since it was a draw between them in the Netherlands. That game kicks off at 7.30pm oor time.
The only good news here really is the Austrians haven’t fared any better. Since their narrow win over Scotland, they’ve lost 4-1 away to Germany…
and their double header against the Dutch finished in a couple of 3-1 defeats.
Nevertheless, the equation is very simple for Scotland tonight. Anything short of a win will ensure Scotland finish bottom of the group with a game to spare and mark an immediate return to Nations League B. Given the goal difference, a win by a couple of goals would definitely help Scotland as it would take us above Austria on the head to head. A win by a single goal and the head to head will cancel out and our goal difference would still be three goals worse than the Austrians by that point. And with a trip to the Netherlands to come while Austria host the Germans, that’s not going to get any better realistically.
We already can’t finish in the top two, so the best we can do at this point is finish third which would mean a playoff against a second place Nations League B team in October. Hopefully that’s still something we’re talking about come matchday six.
In the meantime, the game at Hampden tonight will mark two big occasions. For new head coach Melissa Andreatta, it will be her first game in charge of Scotland, Michael McArdle having presided over the four games of the campaign so far. A winning start for her reign would be nice, especially in front of the home fans.
But as one chapter begins, another ends, with captain Rachel Corsie set to retire when this Nations League campaign concludes. Rachel hasn’t featured in the campaign so far due to injury, but her call up to this latest squad gives her one last chance to feature in the blue of her country in front of her own fans. With 154 caps to her name already, she’s comfortably one of the most capped players of all time, ranking third behind only Gemma Fay and Joanne Love, neither of whom she can catch given their 203 and 191 caps respectively.
Her recent punditry appearances would suggest we probably haven’t seen the last of her, and given her recent cup final appearances on the BBC that’s definitely a good thing. Not only do we get some actually decent insight, but it will annoy the hell out of people like Joey Barton.
How much our outgoing captain will take part in these final two games remains to be seen, given the pain from the knee injury that has kept her out of most of this season for club and country, but even if it’s one last fleeting Hampden appearance I have no doubt it will be given all the recognition it deserves.
Preferably signing off with one last home win! Good luck Scotland!
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