A well-organised Swiss side grinded out a 1-0 win against Scotland to make their perfect record of 5 wins in 5 matches so far. Switzerland are top of the group with Scotland in third and the race for top spot was up for grabs. Every team wishes for a captain fantastic like Sergio Ramos does for Real Madrid to come to the rescue in desperate times. In this match, the Swiss captain, Lara Dickenmann came through and scored the decider past Lee Alexander on the 32nd minute. Dickenmann almost scored the second in a match where the Scottish team struggled to break down their opponents.

Scotland coach Shelley Kerr had this to say after the match, “Switzerland are higher ranked than us, they’ve been to a World Cup before, so there are positives to take because we matched them in the second half.”

So who qualifies for the World Cup? There are two possible ways to make it to the tournament finals. First, there is an option of topping the group. These teams will be guaranteed a place in the 2019 World Cup tournament being hosted by France. Scotland’s chances of doing so are looking unlikely and they might need to consider the second option. The other option is a playoff for one final place by the 4 best runners-up.

Scotland will be hosting Poland on Tuesday and will have all this at the back of their minds. They cannot afford to lose focus on qualifying for the most prestigious soccer tournament.