How Scotland Women qualify for 2023 World Cup as path…

How Scotland Women qualify for 2023 World Cup as path to Australia and New Zealand laid out

It’s a complicated process to make it through the playoffs and guarantee a ticket to the 2023 Women’s World Cup. It would make life simple for Scotland on Tuesday night if either Portugal or Wales win in their respective games.

Portugal play Iceland and Wales are up against Switzerland with both games kicking off two hours before Scotland face the Republic of Ireland at Hampden. The best two teams from the three European playoffs advance with the third winner facing a February Inter-Continental playoff in New Zealand.

With Scotland kicking off later, they should have a better idea about what the result will mean. But – here is the confusing part – Scotland don’t want either team to win too well as there’s a chance they’d leapfrog us in the rankings. If Portugal win by more goals than we win, they can overtake us.

If Scotland win on penalties and Wales win in normal time, they will overtake us. Scotland can’t pass Switzerland if they win on penalties and would need to win by 13 goals to pass Iceland if they win on penalties. The Irish, third on the basis of their qualification record to date, must win and hope at least Switzerland or Iceland lose or win on penalties.

The two top-ranked winners from the three play-offs will qualify for the finals. The third faces a play-off in New Zealand in February.

For all the ifs and buts, though, determined Caroline Weir insists Scotland can only take care of their own business. The Scotland star, who joined Real Madrid from Manchester City in the summer, said: “It means nothing if we don’t win.

“We can chat for however long but we need to step out and win. The team won’t be too worried about other results. We won’t be checking our phones and trying to find out other results as we’re getting ready to go out."

Play-off fixtures : Switzerland vs Wales (18:00), Portugal vs Iceland (18:00), Scotland vs Ireland (20:00)

Table as things stand