Scotland wanted a win to comfort their forth place in the competition and immediately set to the task. The two teams had met last September in the Round 1 of the World League, with a clear win for Scotland (7-0), but Portugal have progressed enormously in the last months, and since the start of the competition in Saint-Germain, and the Scots had a hard time creating any initial danger for Paulo Nogueira in the Portuguese goal.

It is only after 12 minutes of play that Ian Moodie opened the scoring, diving on the far post to deflect a cross after a scrambled penalty-corner. Portugal nearly equalized on the next action, but Alan Forsyth gave a more comfortable 2-goal cushion to Scotland. They benefitted from an own goal by a Portuguese defender, scrambled a penalty-corner chance and survived a messy situation in front of their goal before Niall Stott finally found the back of the net again for a 4-0 lead going into the break.

Pace picked up a tad in second period, both teams receiving the support of the crowd starting to fill the stands for the much anticipated match between France and Canada. Pedro Santos was busy in the Portuguese goal. He kept the opponent at bay for 10 minutes until Gordon Mcintyre added a goal for Scotland. Portugal had 2 good chances on penalty-corners but were denied by excellent saves by Allan Dick, much to the disappointment of the numerous Portuguese fans in the stands.

William Marshall was more efficient at the other end, opting for a straight shot on goal on a penalty-corner to push the score to 6-0. Portugal was now fading quickly and play stayed confined in their 25m.  Scotland added 3 more goals for a final score of 9-0.

As they had boldly announced, Scotland did challenge higher ranked Canada and France during this tournament, and will take solace in finishing ahead of Poland thanks to a dramatic shoot-out competition earlier in the week. Portugal’s ambition was to learn from their much more experienced opponents and they have certainly achieved that objective, progressing from match to match during the week.