Scotland snatch draw with last minute equaliser against Belgium in Nations League

Scotland have avoided a second consecutive Women’s Nations League defeat in four days after snatching a draw with an injury time goal at Hampden.

Sophie Howard scored a header in the last minute of the game against Belgium in Glasgow to secure a 1-1 draw just as it looked like the visitors had done enough to leave with a win.

Pedro Martinez Losa’s side went into the game looking to get their campaign back on track after losing their Nations League opener to England on Friday.

Belgium on the other hand were looking to build on an impressive start after a 2-1 victory over the Netherlands.

Scotland had the best of a goalless first-half but they were unable to break the deadlock against a well organised Belgian defence.

With Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert already missing Scotland suffered another blow when they lost Caroline Weir after the Real Madrid player was forced off with a knee-injury early in the game.

Scotland started the second-half the strongest and a Claire Emslie cross reached Kirsty Hanson at the back post who knocked it down to Martha Thomas in front of goal but the Belgium defender managed to nick it away from her just in time.

But Belgium took the lead with their first attack of the half when Kassandra Missipo was left unmarked to head past Lee Gibson and make it 1-0.

The visitors had a chance to double their lead soon after but Marie Detruyer’s effort flew over the bar with just over half an hour remaining.

Scotland pushed for the equaliser and Losa replaced Martha Thomas with Celtic’s Amy Gallagher, who is the SWPL’s top scorer this season.

Gallagher was involved right away and she helped win a corner before captain Rachel Corsie came to close to making it 1-1 with a header.

Corsie was then called into action up the other end of the park when she cleared after a Belgian counter-attack that probably should have ended in the killer second goal that would have put the game beyond reach.

Gallagher looked lively after coming off the bench and with two minutes remaining she looked to have equalised but her glancing header was just wide of the post.

But just as it looked like the game was lost, Gibson launched a ball into the box and Howard headered it home to salvage a draw.

In the Tuesday night’s other game in the group, England were defeated 2-1 in the Netherlands to leave Scotland rooted to the bottom of the table.

The group winner will go into a Nations League semi-final, with second place securing their place in League A for the Euro 2025 qualifiers and third place going into a relegation play-off against a League B side.

The team sitting at the bottom of the group after six games will drop down to League B and face an uphill task in the qualifiers.