Figure caption,

Watch the goals as Scotland beat Israel 6-0

Caroline Weir scored a magnificent hat-trick as Scotland hit Israel for six and boosted their hopes of topping their Women's World Cup qualifying group.

The Scotland captain slammed home her first after Erin Cuthbert had given Melissa Andreatta's side the lead with an excellent strike from the edge of the box.

And, after the half-time break, Weir struck twice more as the Scots dominated proceedings.

The 30-year-old has been a key figure at Real Madrid for the past four years but appeared to make her final appearance for the Spanish club last weekend with her contract due to expire this summer.

Lauren Davidson and Kirsty Hanson then added further gloss to the scoreline as Scotland finished strongly.

The match ended with a worry for Scotland as key performer Cuthbert left the pitch on a stretcher after the Chelsea midfielder went down clutching her knee.

The sides meet again on Tuesday in the final round of Group B4 fixtures. Both matches are taking place behind closed doors at Budapest's Bozsik Arena after Uefa ruled that no matches can be held in Israel for security reasons.

Scotland have already secured a place in the play-offs later this year and lead their qualifying group on 11 points, above Belgium on goal difference.

Analysis: Weir stars but injury worry for Cuthbert

Given Belgium finish their group campaign against Luxembourg - who they beat 6-0 on Friday - it was imperative that Scotland won by a healthy margin in their quest to top the group.

And they did so, led by the talismanic Weir.

She was constantly looking for the ball, controlling the tempo of the game and, when sights of goal presented themselves, she was clinical.

Two lovely left-footed finishes from inside the box were followed by a calm penalty kick into the bottom-left corner.

Davidson's strike for Scotland's fifth was also a beauty, arrowing into the far top corner.

A repeat performance on Tuesday will be what Andreatta is after, but Scotland's head coach will likely have to make do without Cuthbert, who appeared to badly injure her knee late on after a fairly innocuous challenge.

Head coach reaction

Scotland head coach Melissa Andreatta: "The performance was what we were looking for and we knew that if we took care of what we did with the ball, we'd put ourselves in the best position to get the result.

"It was a dominant performance and that's what we'll focus on - how we can continue to be dominant in game two.

"[Caroline Weir] leads from the front although she's in midfield and she's just a classy person and a classy player and, in situations that really matter, she stands up."

[On Erin Cuthbert's injury]: "You never want to see a player go down, but without any further information, I can't really comment. We'll just see how it pans out."