Portugal 1-0 Scotland: 'Devastated' Scots 'can still qualify' - Andy Thomson

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Portugal celebrateImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Ana Borges, second from left, is flooded by team-mates after scoring Portugal's winner

Scotland's players are "devastated" but feel they can still qualify for Women's Euro 2022 despite losing to rivals Portugal, says assistant coach Andy Thomson.

A 1-0 defeat in Lisbon leaves the Scots four points behind Friday's hosts and Finland in qualifying Group E.

They now host Finland on Tuesday in the first of their remaining three games.

"The players will pick themselves up," Thomson said. "We need to win all our three games. We need to beat Finland."

Even if Scotland fail to be one of nine group winners, they could still make it to the finals as one of the three best runners-up or the winners of play-offs between the other teams finishing second.

But they go into Tuesday's game at Easter Road on the back of successive 1-0 defeats by Finland and Portugal.

"They are a good bunch, they are disappointing and devastated about the result, but they will pick themselves up and know they can still qualify in some kind of way, but they have to beat Finland with a real positive performance," Thomson said.

"If we play the same way as we did in the second half and move the ball quick, we'll create opportunities. We just need to take them."

Scotland had to play in Lisbon without the presence of head coach Shelley Kerr, who was forced to self-isolate after coming into contact with a positive case of Covid-19.

"The impact was minimal - the process we put in place worked quite well," Thomson said.

"The players were prepared very well and Shelley led everything from behind the scenes, so that's not an excuse for the performance or result. It is down to that bit of quality in the final third on both boxes and that's what we lacked."

Group EImage source, BBC Sport

Thomson pointed out not taking chances was "a constant theme" during Scotland's campaign while Portugal, who are on a run of three victories in a row but started the game 11 places behind Scotland in the world rankings, were always going to be difficult opponents.

"If you look at their record, they don't concede many goals," Thomson added, whose side were undone by a goal from Ana Borges. "They don't score many but don't concede many. England came here and beat them 1-0 with a goal in the last 10 minutes.

"It is difficult to create chances against them, but I felt we did it on a number of occasions. We didn't make the most of those opportunities and then concede a poor goal."

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