The prize Scotland's women have won for making the EURO2013 play-offs is two meetings with Spain. Anna Signeul's side were first out of pot two during this morning's draw at UEFA's Nyon headquarters and will welcome Spain at the national stadium on Saturday 20 October. The second leg will be played on 24 or 25 October, with venue details to be confirmed. Scotland have not faced Spain at this level for 14 years, and never under the current UEFA tournament format.
Anna Signeul looking forward to the challenge (c) Ger Harley | SportPix Scotland national coach Signeul said: "This will be a new and very interesting challenge for us. In all honesty they are the one team in the draw that we know least about. We have had them scouted recently and will do more analysis in the run-up to the play-offs. What we do know is that they are a technically gifted side. We can expect them to have a lot of ball possession and we will have to be at the top of our game to get the better of them. We go into this play-off in a positive frame of mind and will approach it in the same way that we have every one of our qualifying matches so far - determined to win and with belief that we can do so. The players are very much looking forward to playing the home leg at Hampden Park. They are immensely proud to have the opportunity to showcase the women's game at the home of Scottish football. We are very grateful for the support we have received during the qualification campaign. We hope the Tartan Army turn out in numbers to create the famous Hampden Roar, and send us on our way to the finals. The finals next July are in Sweden. Nothing would make me more proud than to lead Scotland to a first major championship finals in my home country." The other play-off ties are Ukraine v Iceland and Austria v Russia. Signeul is glad to have avoided Russia who they met when Scotland reached the play-offs for EURO2009, the first time that a Scotland women's team had reached that stage. Scotland lost on that occasion on away goals, after a 3-2 defeat at Tynecastle and a 2-1 win in Nalchick. Signeul said: "Those two matches were very important for our development. We proved that we could compete against a team of this calibre, even beating them for the first time, and on their own turf. Losing on away goals was a tough experience, but one that every one of the players learned from."Spain have qualified for the finals once, reaching the semi-finals in 1997. They were beaten 4-0 on aggregate by The Netherlands in the EURO2009 play-offs. Spain beat Scotland the last time the teams met, in a 1998 play-off to see which side would move from category two to category one in the then-UEFA ranking system, . However, since then Scotland have progressed under the guidance of Signeul and on their game are a hard side to beat. 12 teams will be at the finals in Sweden next summer - the hosts, the seven group winners (Italy, Germany, Norway, France, Finland, England, Denmark) best runners-up The Netherlands, and the winners of the three play-off ties.Source: FOOTYMAD
