There are no limits to Scotland’s Women’s World Cup ambitions, according to Rachel Corsie.
After the thrill of playing in front of a crowd of nearly 20,000 crowd in their last warm-up game, the focus for Shelley Kerr’s side has switched to the clash with England in Nice on June 9.
Getting out of a group that also includes Argentina and Japan will be no easy task but the Scots have built-up enough confidence over their qualifying campaign and recent friendlies to believe it is an achievable goal.
And if they do become the first Scottish side to get to the knock-out stages of a World Cup, they will be determined to go even deeper in the competition.
“We have ambitions to get out of the group and from then on in, the draw can go many ways,” said the Utah Royals defender.
“In one-off games anyone can win and we won’t limit ourselves.
“It can be hard to live in the moment but I think the team knows that we need to enjoy it as much as we can. We need to recognise the achievement we’ve done in qualifying and we are going there to do well.
“The whole year has been good. We’ve had some good opposition, playing different styles of teams. We’ve given ourselves challenges, which has prepared us well for France.
“There’s still work to be done and we’ve got to make best use of our time now, so we’ll be ready come June 9.”
The bond between the Scottish team and the Scottish public is growing and Corsie believes her team-mates deserve credit for their efforts off the pitch as well as on it.
“The crowd were incredible,” she said. “The girls deserved that as we’d worked hard over the last 18 months to put ourselves in this position.
“The SFA have given us the opportunity to play at the national stadium and to play in front of such a crowd was special.
“It didn’t surprise me. The players have worked extremely hard – we wanted to get the fans in.
“The players personally reached out to schools, friends, family. We wanted to push numbers. We know they support us and sometimes you have to do the groundwork.
“We know there’s a community in the women’s football world and they turned out. The encouragement they gave us was huge. We work so hard and it was just an opportunity to enjoy the night. Hopefully we’ve earned some fans that’ll come back again.
“A few of us have had that experience but for a number of them it will be their first time. It’s a different feeling to play at their national stadium and I’m sure it’s an experience that will live with them for a long time.”
On top of the backing the Scots got from the stands on Tuesday night, there were words of encouragement post-match in the dressing room from Steve Clarke, Judy Murray and Nicola Sturgeon.
“It just shows how far we’ve come,” said Corsie. “People with such a high-profile want to come and support us.
“They are there for us too and it lifts our confidence going into next week.”
