Aston Villa forward comes off the bench as Portugal prepare for EURO play-offs with a win

Aston Villa forward Diana Silva came off the bench to feature for Portugal as they defeated Scotland 2-0 in their final UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 qualifier in Larnaca this afternoon.

The 25-year-old came on for goalscorer Ana Capeta after 55 minutes and she went on to provide an assist for Portugal’s second goal which was scored by Fatima Pinto deep in second half stoppage time.

Both sides went into this afternoon’s clash at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium with their final group standings already having been determined. Portugal’s 1-0 defeat to Finland last week confirmed that they will need to win a play-off to secure their place at the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 tournament finals while Scotland’s poor end to qualifying has resulted in them being eliminated.

As the game turned out, it was Scotland who arguably performed better over the course of the 90 minutes but Portugal were the more ruthless with their finishing which enabled them to snatch something of a ‘smash and grab’ victory over The Tartan Army.

Portugal will now await confirmation of who they will face in the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 play-offs in April. The draw for the play-offs is currently set to take place on 5 March with the three ties being played over two legs.

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of FAWSL Full-Time magazine. I have been reporting on men’s and women’s football at various levels since summer 2015. Some of the events which I have reported from include the 2017 UEFA Women’s European Championship, 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, SSE Women’s FA Cup final, Emirates FA Cup final, UEFA Europa League, English Football League and various international matches.

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