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Former Scotland midfielder Suzanne Lappin says it would be a “massive disappointment” if the national team failed to reach Euro 2025.
Scotland have been drawn with Serbia, Slovakia and Israel in League B.
They must finish in the top three of their four-team group to go into two rounds of play-offs to reach the finals in Switzerland next summer.
“You’ve got to be pleased with the group. In my eyes, Scotland need to get there,” said Lappin.
“I think it would be a massive disappointment if they didn’t get to Euro 2025.
“Obviously the teams all pose different threats, but when you stand back from it, we are probably one of the favourites in that group to get there,” she added on the Scottish Football podcast.
Scotland will be expected to finish in one of the top-three positions in the group given they are ranked 25th in the world, 11 places above Serbia and well in front of Slovakia in 49th and Israel in 69th.
Lappin believes the spotlight is on manager Pedro Martinez Losa because Scotland did not qualify for Euro 2022 or last summer’s World Cup.
They will go into Euro 2025 qualification after a miserable Nations League campaign under the Spaniard though, failing to win one match albeit in a tough group alongside England, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“The run of results have not been good enough. The Nations League was a very tough group but that’s where Scotland were a few years ago, we were taking points from these teams,” said Lappin.
“The Pinatar Cup final we lost on penalties and that can happen to anyone but Scotland were beating Finland a few years ago and we really need to be at that level.
“From where we were in 2017 through to 2019, it feels we have fallen short in the last few years.
“Kim Little is a huge loss. She was the standard setter. And there are some fairly new young players – but we have not had a major scalp in so long and it’s fair to say the manager will be under a lot of pressure to qualify for Euro 2025.”
Scotland qualified for their first major tournament when they made it to Euro 2017 and followed that tournament debut by reaching the 2019 World Cup.
Lappin believes the overall rise in standards in the women’s game in Scotland should be translated into progress for the national team.
“Obviously the success of getting to Euro 2017 was then followed up by the World Cup but we’re now at the point of nearly six years of not getting to a major tournament,” added Lappin.
“That kind of goes against the investment in the way the women’s game is growing in Scotland. For the wealth of young talent and the standard of the league itself in Scotland, we really need to be qualifying for these tournaments.”
In Euro 2025 qualification, the top three countries from the four groups in League B will then play against each other to produce six teams to progress to final play-off games against League A and C sides.
Those six teams will meet the winners of matches between the teams finishing third and fourth in League A – which is filled with the top-ranked teams in Europe – and the five group winners and three best-ranked runners-up in League C.
The winners from those seven games in November and December this year will progress to the finals in Switzerland next summer.
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