Spain and Scotland share high hopes

Spain go into their home UEFA Women's EURO 2013 play-off second leg against Scotland on Wednesday with the upper hand following a 1-1 draw in Glasgow at the weekend.

Scotland led the first leg through Kim Little's penalty but Adriana swiftly levelled and was only denied a second when her spot kick was saved by Gemma Fay. The visitors to Las Rozas will need an away goal, and Spain forward Sonia Bermúdez, the outstanding player at Hampden Park on Saturday, would be quite happy for Scotland to come out and attack her side.

She told UEFA.com: "Scotland need a goal to qualify, and I hope they will come trying to score. We will also try to score. It will be much more difficult for them if we get one goal. Our philosophy is to have the ball and try to create chances like the first leg, and try to score from them, which is what was missing."

Spain could be boosted by the return of forward Verónica Boquete, who sat out the first leg on the bench owing to a knee problem. Sonia added: "I am optimistic, I firmly believe in this team. We know it is important to have an away goal. We were aware of that and I am convinced that, if we play like we did in Scotland, we will have a very positive return game."

Like Spain, Scotland were eliminated in the play-offs four years ago but unlike the 1997 semi-finalists they have never qualified for the tournament before. However, Spain have had a habit of conceding home goals in important games and Scotland's away record in their qualifying group was superior to their results in their own country.

"We need to score a goal but if you look at our qualification campaign, that's something that we can do," Fay said. "So it doesn't give us any kind of fear or worries at all."

Jennifer Beattie's presence in attack will be crucial, as she proved by so nearly leading Scotland through four years ago when they won the play-off return 2-1 in Russia but missed out on away goals. "I am definitely optimistic for the second leg," the Arsenal LFC player said. "We are always optimistic, we always have the belief that we can go and take games and get a result. One-one is not a bad result at all. Now we just need to get a good couple of goals away and keep the back door shut."