ERIN Cuthbert and Lisa Evans return to the Scotland squad for what should have been a World Cup double-header against Ukraine and Spain early next month. The Chelsea midfielder and West Ham winger missed the three-game Pinatar Cup tournament through injury.
Scotland were due to play Ukraine at the Arena Lviv next week, but, as with the men's team, that game has been provisionally rescheduled for June. A win would have more or less guaranteed Scotland a play-off place for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, but it is Group B leaders Spain who will clinch the automatic qualifying place if, as expected, they win at Hampden on April 12.
Even with Cuthbert and Evans in the side, Scotland lost 8-0 to Spain in Seville last November, a result which extended the hosts' winning run to 15 games in which they scored an astonishing 96 goals and conceded none. They have moved up to an all-time high of seventh in the Fifa rankings despite their momentum slightly stalling last month when they drew with Germany and England before beating Olympic champions Canada 1-0 in the final game of the Arnold Clark Cup.
Continuing the Spanish theme, the head coach of Ukraine, Lluis Cortes, is also from that country, as is his Scotland counterpart Pedro Martinez Losa. Former Barcelona manager Cortes is now back in Catalonia after being forced to leave Ukraine hurriedly.
“I spoke to him when the war started. He was still in Kiev,” Martinez Losa said at yesterday's squad announcement.
“Ukraine had just come back from Turkey where they won their three matches in the Turkish Women's Cup. He was surprised by the arrival of the war and the Ukraine association recommended he leave as soon as possible.
“They provided him and another member of staff with a van and it took two days to get out of the country. He was dragged into a situation he never thought would happen, but he was lucky he was able to come back to Spain.
“He is working now on trying to support the players the best he can and has tried to facilitate some of them finding another team. He managed it in a couple of examples, but some of the players want to stay – having to leave your country and your family is not ideal.”
As far as the Spain game is concerned, Martinez Losa is viewing it as a potential source of three points despite the evidence in Seville that there is a huge gulf between the side he now manages and that of his native country.
“I want to be positive,” he responded when asked if there was any way Scotland could win at Hampden. “We had an opportunity to score early in the Seville game and for us we have to think we can repeat that, but we have to defend better.
“I will never say we cannot beat Spain.”
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