Scotland beaten by Austria in Michael McArdle’s first game in interim charge

Interim Scotland boss Michael McArdle began his tenure with a 1-0 Nations League defeat to Austria at the Josko Arena.

Lilli Purtscheller fired the home side ahead in the opening League A Group 1 fixture after 14 minutes and the home side deserved their interval lead, albeit the visitors passed up a couple of chances.

Austria, who also had a new head coach in the technical area in Alexander Schriebl, might have expected more of a fight from the visitors after the break but the home goal was rarely threatened.

McArdle took over from Pedro Martinez Losa, who left in December after failing to reach Euro 2025, and he was looking to freshen up Scotland’s approach with a new-look squad. However, they produced a lacklustre performance with little creativity.

Scotland, who have not qualified for a major tournament since 2019, face Netherlands at Hampden Park in their second fixture, with Germany also in their group.

McArdle made 10 changes to the squad that travelled to Helsinki in December and there was a debut for Celtic’s Emma Lawton and also a first competitive start for fellow full-back, Glasgow City’s Amy Muir, while Lee Gibson returned in goal.

The visitors engineered an opportunity in the eighth minute but Kirsty Hanson was thwarted by Arsenal keeper Manuela Zinsberger, who then saved a long distance effort from Martha Thomas.

Austria took advantage of slack defending by the Scots, who failed to repel a home attack despite having an overload of numbers in the penalty area and Purtscheller turned and lashed the ball high past Gibson from 12 yards.

Gibson then saved an angled-drive from Purtscheller with her feet as Scotland wobbled and there was more concern when centre-back Sophie Howard suffered a nasty injury to her forehead which saw her replaced by Leah Eddie, leaving the Scots with a young defence.

Scotland gathered themselves and on the half-hour mark but Zinsberger made a fantastic instinctive save from Hanson’s close-range strike following a Caroline Weir corner.

It was another opportunity spurned although Gibson was required to deal with an effort from Julia Hickelsberger before the break.

Scotland stepped it up in the second half but only marginally and in the 56th minute Lauren Davidson and debutant Freya Gregory, a former England youth international, replaced Claire Emslie and Martha Thomas.

Eilidh Adams then replaced Chelsea Cornet with 10 minutes remaining to make her Scotland debut but nothing was working for the Scots.

Dithering Gibson was caught in possession in her own box by substitute Viktoria Pinther but the visitors escaped thanks to an intervention by Sam Kerr, with the corner coming to nothing, much like the Scots’ efforts on the night.