Scotland Women: Melissa Andreatta urges side to keep ‘faith’ despite relegation

Asked if she might be tempted to go with youth in Tilburg, Andreatta replied: “I think what they showed was a real maturity and able to manage the moment and they thrived.

“We could see an improvement in the second half and I think just that belief that they can play and choose moments to go forward with variation and I think our defending was a lot more aggressive because they had more belief and confidence with that.

“I think what we saw were players coming from the bench and being game changers – both emerging and experienced – and I think that’s fantastic for the team and for those individual players.”

Andreatta is determined to see the positives from the defeat by Austria as her side prepare for “a massive test” against a side ranked 10th in the world and looking to bounce back from their own 4-0 defeat in Germany – a result that means they are now unable to now overtake the group leaders.

“There’s going to be moments in the match where it doesn’t go right, but that’s where we are right now, but it’s not losing faith and know that we’ve taken one step forward and we just need to keep taking that step forward,” she said.

“We took a lot of learnings from it and now what we want to do looking ahead is close this campaign and then, after that, look ahead to a new start in our next camp after that.”

Scotland have lost all five of their games so far in the Nations League top flight, with second-half goals from Lineth Beerensteyn and Chasity Grant giving the Dutch a deserved win at Hampden in February, despite the hosts leading through Emma Lawton’s strike.

That game was under caretaker Michael McArdle’s charge after Pedro Martinez Losa was sacked following the failure to reach this summer’s Euro 2025 finals – and Andreatta believes she has already seen areas where the squad can improve.

“It’s just identifying the moments when we want to press or protect, or progress the ball and penetrate,” the Australian suggested.