Women’s World Cup: Shelley Kerr insists sun has not gone down on Scotland’s hopes

Their maiden campaign continued with a second successive 2-1 defeat at the hands of top-class opposition, Mana Iwabuchi and Yuika Sugasawa on target in Rennes as Kerr’s side were bested by Japan.

There was an inescapable sense of déjà vu as the contest followed the same pattern as Scotland’s loss to England – this time, Lana Clelland halved the deficit in the second half.

And while her team now need to pull off a big win over Argentina in their final Group D assignment, Kerr is certain that her charges’ spirit remains as effervescent as ever.

“Two goals in a first World Cup against teams ranked third and seventh in the world – we’ll take that all day long,” said the Scotland head coach.

“Of course, we didn’t get any points but [it was] a great second-half performance and there are so many positives to take from it.

“The big thing for us now is that the players are not too deflated because we go into our last game needing to win - in hindsight, we probably knew that was going to be the case.

“We were hoping to get something out of the first two. We haven’t but it hasn’t changed anything for us.”

A handsome first World Cup victory – and for results elsewhere to also go their way – will be the order of the day when Scotland face Argentina in Paris on Wednesday if they are to stand any chance of qualifying for the round of 16.

Against former World Cup winners Japan, disaster nearly struck for Scotland early on as Caroline Weir was pick-pocketed attempting to wriggle out of danger but Iwabuchi shot straight into the grateful arms of Lee Alexander.

But with 23 minutes on the clock, the Nadeshiko edged in front with a bolt from the blue, Iwabuchi rocketing a strike high into the net.

It could have been 2-0 soon afterwards but for a sublime despairing block from Jen Beattie to charge down another Iwabuchi strike.

Kim Little was then forced to nod Saki Kumagai’s goal-bound header off the line while Sugasawa met an inswinging corner and flicked the 
ball against the outside of the post.

Sugasawa would prove even more of a menace nine minutes from the break when she went down after connecting with the outstretched arm of Rachel Corsie – referee Lidya Tafesse Abebe pointed straight to the spot and the Japan striker converted confidently from 12 yards.

And in first-half injury-time, an off-balance Hina Sugita cracked an effort against the crossbar.

The tide calmed after the break but, just before the hour-mark, Alexander was at full-stretch to beat away a rasping drive from Emi Nakajima.

At the other end, Erin Cuthbert rattled the woodwork from close-range after the ball broke to her at the far post, but the Scots teed up a tense finale when substitute Clelland picked off a horrendously-misplaced pass and blasted home a spectacular left-footed strike.

There was to be no late twist in the tale, with Japan instead almost making it 3-1, Alexander plucking a save from the top drawer to acrobatically claw away an effort from Sugita.

Kerr added: “In the first half, I thought that our game plan was working really, really well and you could see in the second half the attacking threat that we have against a top-quality team – we’re talking about a team that’s won the World Cup, has been runners-up, and we’ve got to be immensely proud of that.

“At this level, when you make mistakes, you get punished for them but I thought the second half was great.

“[We’re] really unfortunate again not to get something out of the game and we’ll definitely learn from it for sure.

“We critique ourselves all the time but I thought tactically, we got things right.

“A little adjustment here and there helps you because Japan’s movement is incredible. Their strikers were absolutely causing us problems, and that’s something we spoke about.”

• SSE, the energy behind Scottish women’s and girls’ football. Official partner of the Scotland Women’s International team and proud sponsor of the SSE Soccer Centres and the SSE Scottish Women’s Cup.