Curious: Scotland don't lose big enough for the Olympics
Great Britain actually wanted to send a joint women's soccer team to the Olympics. But for that to happen, the Scots have to lose heavily to England. And they do. But in the end it wasn't enough - because of a highly dramatic final spurt.
A footballing curiosity in Glasgow: the Scottish women missed their Olympic chance because they didn't lose big enough in their friendly with England. The 0:6 (0:4) against the European champions was, as crazy as it sounds, not enough - because in the shoot-out, the Netherlands took first place in Nations League Group A1 with a 4:0 (1:0) win over Belgium thanks to their one goal better goal difference than the Lionesses.
The crazy thing is that if England had qualified for the Summer Games, the team would have been allowed to compete there as a Great Britain team - with players from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. This meant that the Scots, led by Samantha Kerr of German champions Bayern Munich, were doomed to lose on the final matchday. The BBC had already written beforehand that "everything was going to be a bit strange" in the duel.
Alex Greenwood (13), Lauren James (38/39), Beth Mead (45/1), Fran Kirby (50) and Lucy Bronze (90/3) scored for the visitors at Hampden Park. According to the BBC, the English women were not even celebrating their own goals. Because Oranje had the better end for themselves at the same time. Damaris Egurrola scored twice in stoppage time (90.+1/90.+5) to put England ahead of their opponents, who had already been eliminated in Glasgow.
England's Beth Mead told the BBC after the game that she was "devastated". "We did everything we could on the pitch today. Unfortunately we didn't have it in our hands, the Netherlands scored four goals, I'll give them that." She continued: "We thought we had done it. But that's soccer."
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Despite Scotland's loss to England in the women's soccer friendly, they missed out on the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris due to the Netherlands' narrow goal difference advantage in Nations League Group A1. England, along with players from Wales, Northern Ireland, and potentially Scotland, would have formed a unified Great Britain team at the Olympics had they qualified.
Source: www.ntv.de
