"If we perform to our best then tomorrow should be a success." - Sophie Howard
Scotland and Leicester City defender Sophie Howard previews Friday's UWNL clash with Belgium with her eyes on a pair of campaign ending victories.
It was Sophie Howard’s late, late equaliser from a Lee Gibson free kick that means Scotland still have a chance of securing their spot at the elite level of the Nations League as they prepare to face Belgium for match day five of the competition at the Don Dreef Stadion on Friday night.
“We’ve got everything to play for”, said the 30-year-old central defender as clouds of cold, crisp breath plumes into the air between us; we’re chatting briefly ahead of today’s training session, “We have to prove ourselves, we know we can do much better and I think there was a massive improvement from the first to second Netherlands game.”
That improvement saw Scotland soften the blow of a 4-0 loss in Nijmegen with a 1-0 defeat at Hampden. It was however still defeat but the defender is quick to point out the levels since the squad returned to camp this week have increased again, “It’s been very intense but we needed that. We need to put things right from the previous camps, it’s the last one of 2023 and we want to end on a bang.”
Having made her Scotland debut in Leuven against the same opposition six years ago, Scotland would lose 5-0 in a friendly that day, Howard has established herself as a regular fixture in the defence and is one of a small handful of players to have started all four of Scotland’s Nations League group games (Rachel Corsie, Nicola Docherty, Kirsty Hanson and Claire Emslie being the other four).
That regularity and her burgeoning experience within the squad has been complimented with the return of two familiar faces in Glasgow City’s Hayley Lauder and London City Lionesses’ Emma Mukandi, “Both Hayley and Emma are really, really good people and good players that bring experience, graft and feistiness to the pitch.”
Mukandi’s return adds further options to a defence that has switched between a back three and a back four in recent games. Howard has been the one constant at it’s heart during those changes with captain Rachel Corsie stepping into midfield against the Dutch.
Irrespective of how the team lines up for Howard the task at hand is very clear, “The goal of this portion of the campaign is to win both games. What will happen in the end we don’t know.”
Scotland will have to play with the shackles off come Friday night but whether that is from the off or comes later in the game the 43-times-capped defender believes that her side have the quality to get the job done, “If we perform at our best tomorrow it should be a success but we need to make sure we put that on the pitch.”
Scotland face Belgium tomorrow with a 19:30 (GMT) kick off time. The game is live on BBC Alba for those watching at home.
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