Scotland fuelled by past heartache – Martha Thomas

Martha Thomas insists the previous heartache against Finland “adds fuel to our fire” as Scotland attempt to seal a place at Euro 2025.

Pedro Martinez Losa’s side host the Finns in the play-off final at Easter Road tonight – live on BBC BBC Scotland, iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app – before the return leg on Tuesday.

Scotland missed out on Euro 2021 after a 1-0 defeat by Finland four years ago.

“It adds fuel to our fire, to try and help us get there and not relive these summers where we’re sat at home and not competing at these tournaments,” said Tottenham forward Thomas.

“Every one of us knows we need to completely empty the tank. It’s all about doing your job on the pitch, we need to make sure everyone is giving absolutely everything to get over the line.

“You need a squad full of a range of different things, experience, youth, talent, everything, and I think we’ve really got that here.”

Scotland head into the play-off with plenty of momentum after seven straight wins, including a 5-0 aggregate victory over Hungary in the previous round.

“It’s given us a huge confidence boost,” added Thomas. “Any team in the play-offs is difficult to play against, so to score five and have clean sheets in both games was big for us and we can use that momentum to go into these two games.

“There’s been a massive improvement, we’ve found a way to win, a way to score goals and a way to limit conceding goals and our results show that.”