Monday 17 June 2019 13:14, UK
Lee Alexander believes Scotland deserve to be on the world stage ahead of their must-win Women's World Cup encounter against Argentina.
Having lost 2-1 to both England and Japan in their opening two World Cup games, Scotland know only victory in their final Group D encounter at Paris' Parc des Princes will give them a chance to qualify for the knock-out phase as one of the best third place teams.
Alexander believes the side can take heart from the second-half revivals in both their opening defeats.
"We have to feel confident, there's things to build upon from the past two games, albeit we got zero points," Alexander said.
"We may have given too much respect to England and Japan in the opening halves but I think our performances in the second periods show we have a desire to get back into games, create opportunities and put the opposition under real pressure.
"Our performances over the last 18 months, and these narrow defeats, prove we belong here.
"So we know we can compete - we just haven't got any points from two difficult games and we need to give ourselves a more complete performance over the entire game against Argentina.
Shelley Kerr's side are currently bottom of the group, a point behind Argentina who picked up a credible draw against Japan in their opening game before narrowly losing 1-0 to England.
Should Scotland beat Argentina to claim one of the four best third place positions to qualify for the last 16 they would become the first senior Scotland side to reach a knockout stage of any major tournament.
"It would be huge, it would be history and we want to make sure we're the team to do this," Alexander added.
"We believe in ourselves, it's in our hands and will fight until the end to try to make it happen."