Scotland were looking to bounce back from their last-minute defeat to France in their opening game of the Under-19 European Championship as they took on Norway on a rainy Friday night at Firhill Stadium.

 

Overall it was a night to forget for Pauline Hamill’s side, with a lack of concentration midway through the first half and on the stroke of the interval leaving her side 4-0 down against Norway at half time.

 

The Norwegians started the more positive of the two sides, as they pressed Scotland slowly back into their own half. With that also came some early chances for the travelling side. The Scots did not make it easy for themselves, a mix up at the back three minutes in between the centre-back Jenna Clark and goalkeeper Sophie Allison caused havok. As Clark waited for Allison to come out Norway striker Jenny Olsen poked the ball through her legs and past the goalkeeper. Fortunately for Scotland Emilie Bragstad was just out of reach and unable to poke the ball into an empty net.

 

This was only the start of the work for the Scottish defence with the visitor’s midfield and attack constantly bearing down on them and keeping Hamill’s side deep within their half. Even when Scotland could get forward the front three struggled to keep the ball in the early stages.

 

The Norwegians were limited to a lot of crosses and long shots until they finally broke through on the 21st minute. Celin Ildhusey cut inside Charlotte Newsham on the right flank. Her shot bounced off the post before Olsen’s quickly stuck a foot out, resulting in the ball bouncing off her leg and into an empty Scotland net.

 

Only four minutes later Norway doubled their lead through Anna Josendal. The midfielder caught a loose deflected ball on the left-hand side of the Scottish box. She turned, cut in and launched a shot past a helpless Allison, finding the top right corner from 20 yards out.

 

On the half-hour mark Scotland recorded their first proper chance of the game. Captain, Amy Muir took a free kick and lobbed it into the six-yard box. The ball fell in amongst the players before a Norwegian defender blocked a close range shot and cleared the ball. Scotland were slowly coming into the game.

 

The hosts looked like they had calmed the storm as half-time approached, until Norway hit a quickfire double. The third goal was a corner, with Tvedten crossing the ball in. The ball was only half cleared when a Norway midfielder headed the ball back in, finding Olsen who latched onto the loose ball for her second of the night.

 

The fourth was the last action of the half; Olsen found herself on the edge of the Scottish eight-yard box, unable to shake her defender she passed the ball back to Nygard. Her low curling shot went just out of Allison’s reach, placing the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.

In the second-half Norway continued to control the tempo of the game as they looked for a fifth goal.

 

With Scotland’s defence holding strong they looked to find a foothold into the game.

 

The hosts did have some opportunities, mostly coming from set plays. With 20 minutes left, Amy Muir played a long ball into the box which found Rachel Brown. Her guided header was nearly fumbled by Karen Sneve in the Norway goal, who wasn’t called into action to much throughout the game.

 

For the majority of the half Norway slowly tried to break down Scotland, but in the final minutes of the game they started to see it out with no real pressure coming onto them.

 

Scotland did have one last chance, with a cross finding Newsham on the edge of the six-yard box, but her shot went wide of the opposition’s goal.

 

Overall it was a much-improved second-half from Scotland, structurally they managed to control more of the Norwegian attack, and it gives them some positives to take into the final group game against the Netherlands on Monday.