Scotland Women endured a tough night at Tannadice, suffering a heavy 4-0 defeat to top-ranked Germany in their first-ever competitive home fixture at the Dundee venue.
Michael McArdleâs side, backed by over 6,000 supporters, remain rooted to the bottom of UEFA Womenâs Nations League Group A1 after three straight losses â and now face mounting pressure ahead of their next test against the same opponents in a few days time.
The evening got off to the worst possible start, with Germany opening the scoring inside the first minute. Just 57 seconds in, Elisa Senss unleashed a thunderous strike into the roof of the net, giving goalkeeper Lee Gibson no chance and immediately putting Scotland on the back foot.
Despite the early setback, Scotland settled into periods of promising play. However, their efforts were undone by moments of misfortune and defensive lapses.
Germanyâs second goal encapsulated the hostsâ struggles â a low cross from Jule Brand was inadvertently turned into her own net by German-born Scotland defender Sophie Howard, further compounding the home sideâs frustration.
Read more:
-
Aberdeen boss optimistic on Dimitar Mitov's Scottish Cup semi-final chances
-
Queenâs Park facing future without youth academy and major investor
After the break, Germany showed their quality and control.
Substitute Cora Zicai capitalised on a loose ball to add a third, before Lea Schuller broke through unmarked to calmly slot past Gibson and complete the scoring.
Scotland had moments of promise, but Germanyâs clinical edge proved decisive.
The sides will meet again in Wolfsburg on Tuesday, and McArdle - who remains in interim charge as the Scottish FA seek a permanent replacement for Pedro Martinez Losa - is likely to be demanding a more resilient display.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalistâs job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readersâ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readersâ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the âreport this postâ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereYou must verify your phone number before you can comment.
Please enter your phone number below, and a verification code will be sent to you by text message.
Please enter the six-digit verification code sent to you by SMS.
Your verification code has been sent a second time to the mobile phone number you provided.
Your verification code has been sent a third time to the mobile phone number you provided.
You have requested your verification code too many times. Please try again later.
Didnât receive a code? Send it againThe code you entered has not been recognised.
Please try again
You have failed to enter a correct code after three attempts.
Please try again later.
Your phone number has been verified.
Your phone number has been stored with your account details. We will never use it for anything other than verifying that you are the legitimate owner of this account.