Scotland: Midfielder Caroline Weir ‘couldn’t sleep’ after Finland defeat

In the absence of Aston Villa defender Rachel Corsie, Weir captained Scotland in both of their two-legged play-off games against Hungary and Finland.

While she was at the heart of a superb performance at Easter Road in the semi-final second leg against the Hungarians, she – and her team-mates – could not replicate such magic against the Finns and sparingly troubled their goal.

A flat performance in the freezing Finnish capital meant that by the time the Scots started to turn the screw ever so slowly, the damage had been done by two first-half goals.

When the full-time whistle whirled round the Bolt Arena, the Scotland players sunk to deck and stared deep into the night.

Weir was left with an abundance of what if’s and will spend the summer, once more, on the sofa, watching many of her club-mates hit the biggest stage in Switzerland.

“I’ve probably found it one of the more difficult times in my career in terms of a result like that,” the former Arsenal and Manchester City midfielder said of last Tuesday’s game.

“I actually found it hard to sleep after for quite a few nights.

“It’s hit a lot of players very hard, for me definitely, thinking, ‘what more could I have done?’ Thoughts you really don’t want to have, but that’s happened in the last week.

“I think it’s probably too soon to say exactly where [Scotland go from here].

“We have to reflect, see where it was we fell short exactly. For me, it’s still a little bit too soon to really go into the details, we have to let it settle a little bit.”

But nine days on from yet another disappointment, Weir will not have been the only one suffering sleepless nights as the restlessness rises among the support at the radio silence.