Scotland defender Howard in form of career

Scotland defender Sophie Howard says she is playing some of the best football of her career having come up with key moments for the national side.

The centre-back scored the winner at Hampden against Slovakia to kickstart this Euro 2025 qualifying campaign, having also grabbed a late leveller against Belgium in the Nations League.

Howard will be expected to line up alongside captain Rachel Corsie against Israel on Friday at Hampden as Scotland aim to take control of Group B2.

“I’m enjoying my football and that’s why I’m producing those levels,” she said. “This group brings the best out of one another.

“It’s working for me – but the whole team too. Four points from the first two games is a strong start. It’s the quality of the group is what allows me to perform.”

Scotland are yet to concede after games against Serbia and Slovakia, but have only managed that single Howard goal so far.

The Leicester City defender says finding the back of the net has been “a big focus” in training, but not just for the forward players.

“We always say defending starts from the front line and scoring goals starts with us defenders.

“We’re looking to score more goals but that means we need to allow the strikers to get better chance.

“So it’s a collective effort to go out and score more goals than we have.”