‘Paramount’ for Scotland women to return to finals – Leanne Crichton

Scotland women’s return to major tournaments is “paramount” for the nation, says Leanne Crichton.

Pedro Martinez Losa’s Scots face Hungary over two legs in October and, if successful, will take on Montenegro of Finland for a place in next summer’s Euro 2025 finals in Switzerland.

Crichton, capped 72 times, was part of Scotland’s squad at Euro 2017 and the 2019 World Cup before retiring from international duty in 2020. The national team missed out on the subsequent two major finals.

“We need to get it back,” the midfielder told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound. “It’s paramount, it’s paramount for the nation because probably only once I took myself out of the fold I really understood and realised the impact that it had on the nation.

“When you’re in it, you only think about the team. You only think about your agenda and qualifying. What you don’t realise is that with that comes also the prize money and how that drops down into Scottish football as a collective; how that impacts the fans and the supporters and their incentive and their desire to be at games.

“What they want to see is teams performing at the highest level, they want to have those major tournaments to look forward to, the players need it as well.”

Scotland progressed to the Euros play-offs after finishing top of their qualifying group with 16 points from a possible 18 earlier this month.

And Crichton said of the Hungary and potential next stage games: “They’re winnable.

“They look good and we can hope to learn from previous lessons.

“For some players within the group, it might be their last crack at it because there’s a few aging players.”