EuroHockey 2013: England women beat Scotland

England women are through to hockey's Euro semi-finals in Belgium after a 2-1 victory over Scotland.

Nikki Kidd levelled for Scotland after Hannah Macleod's late first-half goal, before Sam Quek struck the winner.

Scotland, who face the relegation pool later this week, felt they should have avoided defeat.

"Maybe we'll look back and think it was a good performance, but we know we could have got something out of that game," said Scotland's Emily Maguire.

England goalscorer Macleod admitted: "It was a difficult day at the office, that's for sure. We were poor today and there's no hiding from that.

"This team has set some pretty high standards and we wanted to continue that momentum. This was a gritty clash, we knew that, we knew they were going to be passionate."

England team-mate Alex Danson added: "Scotland played extremely well and I'm just grateful we got that second, crucial goal."

Despite disappointment in their performance, England are through to the last four and remain on track to reach the European final for the first time since 1991.

"It's been a long time," said Danson. "I know the team would be delighted to get through that semi-final. We'll come out absolutely fighting to try to make that final."

England's semi-final will take place on Thursday, while Scotland enter a separate relegation pool with games on Thursday and Saturday.

Realistically, they must win both games to have a hope of finishing outside the bottom two and avoiding the drop to European hockey's second tier.

"We're not quite the finished article yet, we've got the finishing touches to put on things," said Maguire.

"But now we've got two more really crucial matches to fight for our survival and I know we're going to go out there and give it everything."

England head coach Jason Lee later said his players had been affected by a "sickness bug" but refused to blame that for their sluggish performance.

"Nearly all the girls are suffering from it, so energy levels were very low today and we just had to do what we could to get through the game," said Lee.

"I do think Scotland played very well and I don't want to take anything away from them, they will be strong contenders in their remaining matches."

Ireland's women were beaten 3-0 by hosts Belgium and also condemned to the relegation pool, alongside Spain and Belarus.