Scotland made an impressive start to their qualifying campaign for the UEFA European Women’s Under-19 Championship in Slovakia as they won 3-2 against Ukraine.

Goals from Abigail Harrison, Erin Cuthbert and Lia Tweedie ensured Scotland went into second place in Group 11 behind leaders Austria, who defeated Albania 8-1 later that day.

After their 3-0 victory against the same opposition earlier this year, Scotland were keen to emulate such a good performance. And they duly did, dominating proceedings and peppering the Ukrainian goal so that the result flattered the visitors in the end.

The Ukrainians were anxious to make the game hard for Scotland, disrupting their flow with fouls at the beginning of the match. After 17 minutes, though, Rachel McLauchlan’s blocked shot resulted in a corner. Midfielder Erin Cuthbert put in a great ball and Scotland were ahead, with captain Abigail Harrison scoring.

Scotland lost possession from a Cuthbert free kick in the 40th minute, and Ukraine duly seized their opportunity to counter as Khuda fed in Lymar to score the equaliser. Defiantly, Scotland tried to react, and put Ukraine under huge pressure, producing an onslaught that was eventually stopped by Ukrainian keeper Viktoriia Kyslova and the half time whistle.

The home side came out fighting for the second half, determined to set the result right. It paid off as Cuthbert scored two minutes after the interval after Kyslova had just made yet another save.

Creating a vast amount of chances, Scotland found it easy to cut through the opposition and had more than three times more attempts on goal, a remarkable 35 efforts in total. Only Kyslova could prevent a worse outcome for her team, saving an incredible 12 efforts. The Ukrainian defenders were equally as valiant, blocking a good number of shots.

In the 71st minute, Scotland could have sealed it when Khuda commited a foul in her penalty area, but Harrison missed from the spot. Nevertheless, they made up for it just four minutes later, as Tweedie made it 3-1 from a McLauchlan assist.

The game became a bit scrappy in the final minutes, with fouls more common and a few cards shown. Matviyishyn scored from a corner in the 94th minute, but that could not gloss over the fact that Scotland were just too good for Ukraine that evening. They face Albania next and will be hoping to keep on playing the way they did here.