Valiant win not enough for Scots at Euro's!

The bravehearts of the Scotland Women's National Team battled valiantly to reach the Quarter Finals of the Euro 2017 Women's Finals last night but agonisingly came up short in their quest to qualify for the knockout stage.

After an unsurprising defeat in their opening match against England and a narrow defeat to Portugal, Anna Signeul's team were left with the tough task of having to beat Spain by two clear goals and hope England could end their Group D campaign with a win over Portugal.

Mark Sampson's Lionesses did their part in securing top spot by winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Toni Duggan and Nikita Parris.  This meant Spain could progress to the last 8 even with a 1-0 defeat.

The Spaniards, much more experienced than their Scottish opponents, dominated play and came very close on a number of occasions to putting the ball past Scottish keeper Gemma Fay but a combination of brave defending and the woodwork kept the ball out of the Scottish net to maintain hopes of a historic win for the SWNT.

Scotland broke the deadlock on 42 minutes with Liverpool striker Caroline Weir knocking the ball home to give them hope heading into the second half.

[caption id="attachment_2678" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Liverpool striker Caroline Weir's solitary goal was enough to give Scotland victory over Spain, but sadly not enough to see them through to the Quarter Finals.[/caption]

The final 45 minutes saw Spain again come close to scoring while Scotland created rare opportunities for themselves as time ticked down.  Unfortunately for Scotland, time ran out in their quest to get the vital second goal and saw them finish in 3rd place in Group D, one goal away from history in their debut at the European Championship finals.

Saturday sees the competition reach the Quarter Final stage with hosts Netherlands, winners of Group A, taking on Sweden who will look to their experience to see them past the Dutch.  Later on Saturday night tournament favourites Germany face Denmark for a place in the Semi Finals.  Sunday's action sees surprising winners of Group C, Austria take on Spain with the winners facing the victors of the Germany/Denmark clash while the final match of the round is probably the most mouthwatering of the lot.  Group D winners England will look to end a streak dating back to 1974 and finally defeat France to get through to the final 4 and a matchup with the Netherlands/Sweden winners.

Based on form so far, the Lionesses have been the best team in the competition and fans of Women's Football up and down the country will be hoping the team can continue on their path to European glory.