Scotland face a bleak winter after their hopes of qualification for the European Championship in Switzerland next summer were extinguished in a frozen Helsinki.
As an ultimately comfortable Finland celebrated a victory sealed in the second leg of this Euro 25 playoff the visiting manager, Pedro Martínez Losa, faced a uncertain future.
A country with players as talented as Real Madrid’s Caroline Weir and Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert should be in the continental spotlight in July. Small wonder that as the clock ticked down and the mercury plummeted, a disconsolate, dejected Martínez Losa looked close to tears.
After qualifying for Euro 2017 and the 2019 World Cup, Scotland seem to have veered off track and their captain, Weir, knows it. “It’s a really tough one to take,” she said. “The players have worked so hard but, unfortunately, we’ve not done enough. We couldn’t take that final step.”
In truth, they never got going. By the time, well into the first half, Cuthbert missed a glorious chance on the half volley, Finland were two goals ahead.
Even a goalkeeper as good as Eartha Cummings had no answer to Natalia Kuikka’s sublime rising, long-range, eighth-minute opener and then Scotland’s goalkeeper found herself thoroughly wrong-footed after Nea Lehtola’s strike took an unfortunate deflection off Sophie Howard.
At that point it would have been an understatement to say that Finland’s wing-back‑propelled system was working to perfection as it morphed between 5-4-1 and 3-5-2.
With Lehtola having hit the crossbar, the streetwise home side could easily have been ahead but, as half-time approached, the visitors regrouped and began highlighting their hosts’ vulnerability at set pieces as they forced eight first‑half corners.
Almost imperceptibly Martínez Losa’s team had begun asserting themselves to the point where, for a short while, they were the better side. It took a fine save on the impressive Tinja-Riikka Korpela’s part to keep Howard’s header out after her connection with Weir’s well‑executed corner.
Not that this tilt in the game’s power balance did much good for a Scotland team contentiously denied a potential handball penalty as Cuthbert saw a shot blocked in highly suspicious circumstances.
“It’s not for me to say whether I’m the right man to lead Scotland … but I think we should have had a penalty,” Martínez Losa said. “One goal would have changed the game. After Finland’s second goal we played excellently.”
In the second half temperatures dipped towards -5C and, just as the snow piled up behind the goals showed no indication of melting any time soon, Finland’s defence held firm.
Admittedly Sam Kerr’s shot rebounded off a post and Kuikka somehow scooped Jenna Clark’s late strike off the line but, such rare glimmers of visiting hope aside, the Finnish contain and counter approach paid dividends as Scotland’s attempt revival fell flat.
As celebratory fireworks lit up the Helsinki skyline at the final whistle, a prolonged, and painful, Scottish postmortem beckoned.
