FIFA Women's World Cup: England 2-1 Scotland, 5 talking points

#5 Scotland showed a lot of bravery and might escape the group yet

Claire Emslie scored for Scotland in the second half and got her side back into the game

Shelley Kerr couldn’t really take a lot of positives from her side’s first-half performance, as they were absolutely shellacked by England and with better finishing and more luck, Phil Neville’s Lionesses easily could’ve gone into half-time three or four goals to the good. In the second half though, Scotland came back strongly and were arguably unlucky to come away with a loss.

The truth is that outside of Claire Emslie’s 79th minute goal – which was set up by a sloppy pass from England’s Steph Houghton – Scotland weren’t truly able to carve out any great chances, but what they did show was heart and desire in spades.

Where England were able to carve their defence up time after time in the first half, in the second they were often running into brick walls, and Scotland’s pressing game and tenacity kept them in the game to the point where they seemed more likely than their opponents to score, even though they couldn’t actually force an equaliser.

Given England were the highest ranked side in Group D – ahead of 7th ranked Japan and 37th ranked Argentina – and Scotland were able to perform this way against them, it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility that Kerr’s side could make their way out of the group stage and into the knockouts – and from there, who knows what could happen.