Scotland women’s Sweden training is “perfect” preparation for Spain’s World Cup qualifiers, says Arsenal defender
The new manager has presided over three World Cup qualifiers, but Beattie admitted that there was a lot of room for improvement after Friday’s last breather victory over Hungary when captain Rachel Corsie knocked in a dramatic winner with 20 seconds left on the Hampden clock.
Next month, Scotland will host a Spanish team that recently scored seven goals in Budapest and Beattie and her teammates will have perfect preparations when they host the Olympic runner-up in Sweden in Paisley on Tuesday.
Beattie said: “Our performance will be in focus. We have huge matches against Spain in progress and Sweden is behind a very successful summer, takes a silver medal and is one of the best teams in the world. Now.
“So it’s a perfect preparation for us to try to test ourselves against a very good team. Regardless of the result, there will be so many learning outcomes.”
Regarding the impact of the new coach, Arsenal’s midfielder said: “He has tried to implement his philosophy and cultural ideas on us very quickly. We have had to learn quickly but it is professional football nowadays, you just have to move on. Board with what the boss is willing to do.
“I think this group is very open to it and has really tried to take on board everything he tries to train us and implement it in these matches very quickly, because we had qualifiers directly with Pedro. So we were very results-focused but still trying emphasize all the little things we try to implement.
“If I look at how we conceded the goal (last Friday), our technical ability needs to be improved. Pedro’s style is a very technical aspect of football.
“I still think we as defenders let in too many goals as a team. Our defensive form and physique within our box is where we tend to lose too many goals, so that’s something we need to improve.”