Top of their group at the halfway stage, Scotland have the belief to continue their charge as they look to claim a Euro25 play-off spot, according to captain Rachel Corsie.
Pedro Martinez Losa’s side moved to the summit after Friday night’s 4-1 win over Israel at Hampden with Corsie keen on a similar performance as they head to Budapest for the return leg of the double header.
“We knew there would be challenging games in this group,” she said. “We wanted to win every game which we obviously haven’t done but we have put ourselves in a position where we can be top. We want to stay there but it is a case of staying focussed.
“Ultimately, the ambition is to top the group and everyone in the group believes that it is something we are very capable of doing.”
Scotland’s first-half showing was dominant and assured despite the disruptions that had taken place before kick-off. A 30 minute delay after a protestor breached security to chain himself to a goalpost meant that the players had to head back to the dressing rooms immediately before kick-off had been due to take place while audible chanting could be heard throughout the game from those gathered outside the ground.
“We prepared really well through the week and tried to think of different eventualities that may happen,” she said. “We took it in our stride and we stayed together. We showed how well we dealt with it by how we started the game.
“There has been a lot around it. We have been asked to turn up and pay the games and we have stayed focused on them. We felt the best was to stay together and perform.
“We were calm. The information came to us quickly [about the delay].
“We were in the tunnel and the communication was really good from the security staff.
“We didn’t know entirely what was going on but everyone was calm but you are pretty focussed at that point.
“I don’t think it was ever in our head that the game might not go ahead. At that point the focus is just on preparing, our minds were on the game and the warm-up.
“In the professional game everyone has different processes and will reflect differently.
There are lots of different challenges in games and you have to learn how to handle them.”
Scotland headed into the interval on the back of a 3-0 lead although Israel changed things around for the second-period. Corsie has insisted that it would be remiss to ignore the lessons of that.
“I would imagine that they will take some confidence from the second-half and potentially they might be a little bit more aggressive in how they play tomorrow,” she said.
“We will prepare for every different eventuality. That was we done for Friday night and it was very effective in the first-half.
“We will prepare similarly for tomorrow night and have a look at one or two things that we can maybe tidy up.
“First-half we were very good. Second-half there are a few bits and pieces we can be better with.
“We have felt there have been performances recently where we have been doing the right thing but the reward of the goals hasn’t been there.
“We have worked hard last week on that so it was pleasing to get different people on the scoresheet and some pretty good goals as well.”
