Jennifer Beattie says Scotland Women are not far off the world's best sides

Scotland Women's Jennifer Beattie tells Sky Sports News how close she thinks Shelley Kerr's team are to the best sides in the world

Scotland Women are not far off the best teams in the world, according to defender Jennifer Beattie.

Beattie is part of the Scotland Women squad out in Portugal for the Algarve Cup, a preparation tournament ahead of this summer's Women's World Cup in France.

Despite losing their first game of the competition against Canada, Beattie believes Scotland Women are just small margins away from being able to match the world's leading women's teams.

"Playing against USA in November, and testing ourselves against a very top side in Canada, is only going to put us in a good position come the summer," she told Sky Sports News.

Scotland Women head coach Shelley Kerr says the Algarve Cup is proving to be ideal preparation for the World Cup

"So far the preparation has been good. We've not necessarily had the results but we don't feel like we are that far off. Long may it continue until June.

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"Yeah, absolutely (it's fine margins). Canada is the perfect example.

"We were more than in the mix of things, sometimes we looked like the better team. It's penalties, set pieces and all those things which will become important on the way to the World Cup.

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"A draw might have been a fair result but we lost - we need to change that."

Scotland Women's goalkeeping coach Steve Banks discusses his playing career in Scotland, including winning three cup medals without ever featuring in a final!

All of the team's preparations are being geared towards their opening World Cup match against England in Nice.

Beattie says she has "no doubt" the team will be ready to be at their best against the Lionesses in June.

"We will be (ready to handle the occasion) without a doubt, " she added.

"The girls have had tournament experience and our preparation has been good so far. There's no doubt we'll be ready, the plans are in place for us to be in the best possible position come June."

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