'Not pretty or nice but Scots come up clutch in Casablanca'

In Casablanca, Scotland rounded up the usual suspects to secure their first win in almost a year.

Erin Cuthbert's opener, directly from a corner, and Caroline Weir's wonder goal from 35 yards, ensured victory against Morocco and Melissa Andreatta's first win in her third game as head coach. But they made hard work of it.

The Australian warned it "wasn't going to be perfect" and admitted post-match it was far from it, but she got what she asked for. A win.

The first since 29 October 2024 for the national team.

When Elodie Nakkach's slapstick equaliser for the hosts hit the back of the net with 10 minutes to go, that win appeared to wither away.

But this is the Andreatta era now, which means a change of manager - a change of stadium - and a change of script for Scotland.

For long spells of the sticky, stop-start friendly that it was out in North Africa, the Scots struggled to kick in to their new era as planned. An eerie feel of familiarity crept in in Casablanca.

Though Andreatta oversaw a defeat by Austria and a draw in the Netherlands, this encounter - the first of four friendlies before the end of the year - was viewed as something of a starting point.

Her line-up and set-up supported that clean slate sentiment, as a back three was deployed in the Stade Pere Jego - after the match was moved from Stade El Arbi Zaouli earlier this week.

That system, along with opponents Morocco, allowed for what the head coach called "an afforded opportunity to really get our attacking game going".

That didn't exactly happen.

The heat, and a whistle-happy referee, didn't help, but the Scots seldom tested Khadija Er-Rmichi in the Moroccan goal.

Until Cuthbert curled a cracking corner into the back of the net.

"We've been doing a lot of work on set pieces this week, they've been absolutely daft for it," the Chelsea midfielder told BBC Scotland of the new coaching staff.

"I saw the goalkeeper off her line a little bit - not everyone is going to admit it but I honestly did. I just wanted to put it into a good area, but in the end it's gone straight in."

And it was a relief when it did.

It looked like Cuthbert's calculated corner was going to be the the difference maker in Morocco, until Nakkach's equaliser.

In the 40 minutes of football in between the goals, Andreatta's ambition was not being realised.

Rarely did the Scots seek a second. Instead, they invited the WAFCON runners-up back into the game with a fair few hairy-scary moments before the deserved leveller was lashed in.

In the dying embers of the game, there was an urgency about Scotland's play which had been absent for the 80 minutes prior.

It led to Weir's lofted finish - the kind she knocks in for Real Madrid with relative ease - and a lot of relief among the Scotland ranks.

Relief that they'd be arresting this wretched, winless run and relief that they were doing so in the face of adversity.

"Games like this remind me when we played Albania to qualify for the World Cup," Cuthbert added.

"It might not be pretty, it might not be nice, they get themselves back in the game, but we come up clutch and we go to win it.

"I think now it is about getting wins on the board for us."

After eight games without a win, this one was more than needed.

A bleak Nations League campaign followed a failure against Finland to qualify for Euro 2025. The last celebrated result was at Easter Road against Hungary in the second leg of the Euros semi-final play-off.

That night in the capital - where hopes were high with a bounty of belief in tow - turned out to be the highest point Pedro Martinez Losa's reign reached.

Against the Finns, Scotland were flat. Cuthbert and Weir were left annoyed as they were unable to make an impact and therefore were once again left out of the continental spotlight in the summer.

Why it doesn't consistently click for the country's creative pair remains a mystery.

But if Andreatta is able to crack that code, and oversee the beginning of a beautiful friendship, there will no doubt be many more fist pumps from the touchline on the full-time whistle, as there was in Casablanca.