Scotland star Lisa Evans believes that the number of Scottish women playing abroad has played a key role in their international success.

Last year Scotland's women qualified for the European Championships, their first ever major tournament, and Evans said that going overseas offers better opportunities to Scottish players.

Evans played for Glasgow City before moving to Germany with Turbine Potsdam and Bayern Munich and then joining Arsenal in 2017.

She told STV: "Women in Scotland if they want to get paid to play football and have the best opportunity to play in top teams and in the Champions League then you have to move abroad.

"That's the sad thing; the men have the opportunity to play professionally in Scotland.

"In recent years you've seen the increase of our players playing abroad and that can only benefit the [Scotland] team.

"We've gone up the rankings and represented Scotland in a major tournament which we've always wanted to do.

"We've finally done that and it's now about pushing past that and going to European Championships or World Cups and causing an upset.

"That's the next step."

Arsenal striker Evans signed for German side Turbine Potsdam in 2012 after impressing in a Champions League tie against them for Glasgow City and said that whilst things are improving in Scotland, the woman's game here still has a way to go.

Evans said: "Moving from Scotland to Germany was quite a big one in terms of the level I was training and playing at.

"I think first and foremost the football opportunities in Scotland are quite limited, although domestically they have been pushing for that to get better.

"I think it has got better, we do have girls that although they are not getting paid to play, they live very much a professional lifestyle.

"The Scottish FA has made sure of that, all the girls that are in the national team have access to gym facilities and nutritionists."

Evans was speaking after recently beginning a vlogging series for UEFA called Together #WePlayStrong alongside Basel's German striker Eunice Beckmann and Austrian internationals Sarah Zadrazil and Laura Feiersinger.

The four friends film their day-to-day lives to give an insight into life as professional female athletes to try and increase participation in the sport.

Evans added: "It's about four friends who have known each other and played together and we've all went our separate ways and play in different leagues now but we all stay in touch and it's all about that, the different ways we've went and our different paths.

"It's there to make football accessible for people all over the world and for girls especially it's important that girls want to pick up the ball and actually play football.

"By 2019, the campaign has the objective to make football the most participated sport in woman's sport. I wanted to put woman's football out there and make it more accessible to woman all over the world."