Scotland women: Boss Anna Signeul confident of qualification

Anna Signeul has led Scotland's women into the World Cup qualifying play-offs for the first time in their history

Scotland women's head coach Anna Signeul is convinced her side will qualify for the 2015 World Cup in Canada via the play-offs.

The Scots were beaten 2-0 by Sweden on Wednesday, ending their hopes of automatic qualification.

But with Netherlands, Italy and Ukraine also in the play-offs, Signeul reckons her charges will reach the finals.

"If we compete like this, if this is the performance we're going to give, we will absolutely make this," she said.

The visitors, who had already secured a play-off spot, needed a 3-1 win or better from Wednesday's match but Sweden bossed the first half in Gothenburg and hit the front through Therese Sjogran's header.

Scotland goalkeeper Gemma Fay also produced a stunning stop from Lotta Schelin to ensure it was just 1-0 at the break.

Signeul's outfit showed up better after the break and had numerous chances before Schelin finished a counter-attack to kill the contest and ensure the Swedes ended the campaign on top of Group Four.

Scotland midfielder Leanne Crichton believes her side will make it to the World Cup finals in Canada

But the Scotland coach has taken heart from her team's performance against the side ranked fifth in the world.

"Even the players said they should have scored with some of the chances, we really created some great chances," Signeul told BBC Scotland.

"I'm really proud of the players - I just take the positives from this, and there are a lot of positives. We created some great chances against one of the best teams in the world and unfortunately they have one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

"Going into the play-offs it feels really good, I have now forgotten about this game other than taking the positives."

Those sentiments were echoed by Scotland midfielder Kim Little.

"We never took our chances but we're in the play-offs now and still in with a chance," she told BBC Scotland.

"I had maybe three chances and should be putting at least one of them away. It's hard to take but we move on to the next two games.

"We can take confidence from this, we were playing a top 10 team and gave them a really good game. We created a lot of chances and now we're going to play a lower ranked team."

Leanne Crichton was a stand-out performer and she remains confident Scotland's women will reach a major finals for the first time in their history.

"We were definitely unlucky," the Glasgow City midfielder said. "We firmly believe we deserve to be there and we'll get there."