Scotland women 1 - 1 Spain women: Scots full of optimism for Madrid showdown - Sport - Scotsman.com THERE was still optimism among coach Anna Signeul and the Scottish players who travelled to Madrid last night, despite being held to a home draw by Spain. Scotland women - Little (pen 25) Spain women - Adriana (30) The Scots were not at their best, especially in the first half, on their first appearance at the national stadium on Saturday, but could have emerged with a win had Swiss referee Esther Staubli not denied them a blatant penalty near the end of the first leg of the European Championship play off. Kim Little put Scotland ahead from the spot in the first half, but, instead of building on that, Signeul's side lost a soft goal five minutes later when captain Gemma Fay failed to hold a shot by Sonia Bermudez and Chelsea striker Adriana Martin netted. The goalkeeper made amends with a stunning double save from Adriana after Spain won a penalty of their own near the end of the opening period. Captain Fay said afterwards: "It would have been nice to have gone to Madrid with a 1-0 lead and I'm personally disappointed with the Spanish goal. Hopefully I made it up to the girls with the penalty save. When you make a mistake the best thing is to pick yourself up and get on with it. That's what I did and we came away with a draw. The tie is still in our hands. To get the win they need in Madrid, the Scots will need more possession. The open spaces of Hampden played into the hands of the Spanish and Scotland did well to reach the interval on level terms. Four of the starting eleven and five more on the bench, had played in Scottish Cup semi-finals on Wednesday, giving themselves less than 72 hours to recover. It would have been a big ask for professional players, never mind amateurs who train five nights a week and hold down full time jobs. Spain, who are five places higher in the Fifa rankings, will expect to finish the job off but Fay pointed out: "It's a one off game, a cup final, and it comes down to the attitude you take on to the pitch. We go there knowing we need to score a goal, but also knowing we can do it. Spain are technically good and skilful, but we had some great opportunities as well. Four years ago we lost the play-off to Russia on away goals. Everybody who was there and experienced the disappointment will never forget it. Anna challenged us then to step up and we will use what happened then to spur us on. Scotland: Fay; Small, Jones, Corsie, Lauder; J Ross (Mitchell 58), Love, Sneddon, Evans (Grant 83); Little; Beattie. Spain: Tirapu; Torrejon, Nicolau, R Garcia, Ibarra; Vazquez (D Garcia 75), Mesegeur, Vilanova, Hermoso, Bermudez (Dieguez 90); Adriana (Romero 83).