Erin Cuthbert column: Scotland striker on Paris, Piccadilly Circus & Argentina

Scotland striker Erin Cuthbert will be writing columns for the BBC Sport website this summer as the national team compete in their first World Cup.

I'm doing this column in a taxi, stuck in Paris traffic, trying to get back to the team hotel. I'll be honest, I've no idea where I am or where I'm going, so I'm hoping the driver does... either that or the security people are going to have to come looking for me.

That's a luxury most tourists don't have and that's what the squad have been today - tourists. We arrived here from Rennes yesterday and, after a morning of training for some of the girls and recovery for others, we were all taken into the city for the afternoon and split up to do whatever we fancied. I'd been here before when I was really young, but I wanted to have a wee look at the Eiffel Tower and drive through the Arc de Triomphe. The sun was shining and I spotted a few Tartan Army fans around, so it was a good day.

• Haunted chateaux, Killing Eve & teqball

• Love Island & magnesium salts

• Crying in Majorca & glances in the gym

• David Luiz's party & tumble dryer confusion

A few of us took the last-minute decision to go to the United States v Chile game and it was cool to watch a World Cup game as a fan and experience a bit of the buzz around it. I know some players like to switch off from the football at tournaments like this, and I've not immersed myself it in. But I just love watching football so I've had games on in the background to make sure I'm keeping tabs on them without being too invested.

Apart from that, though, I'm trying to stay in a bit of a bubble. I've been on social media to post the odd thing, but I've not been scrolling through my timeline or anything like that. One thing I have noticed, though, is my face plastered across Piccadilly Circus. I mean, come on, you could hardly miss it... it's massive!

I could never have imagined seeing my face on a billboard in one of the busiest spots in London. Mind you, I couldn't have imagined seeing it in Eglinton Street in Irvine either, and that's equally as cool, if a bit closer to my heart.

Both murals have been done from a photograph that was taken specifically for it at the Algarve Cup earlier this year and I'm delighted with mine.

'I'm not desperate for goal; I'm desperate for a win'

The attention has not all been good, though, and as players, we've been aware of some of the criticism after the Japan game. It seems to me there was a pre-conception that we were going to go breeze it against England and Japan, who are two of the best teams in the world. I guess it's that 'gallus' Scottish attitude coming out. But those expectations only come because we've been successful and people think we can compete at that level, so that's a compliment.

I just try to take a bit of a distance from it and use it as motivation to turn a negative into a positive. The Japan game was a disappointment - we should have had a couple of penalties, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm still getting treatment for a bruised ankle after one of those challenges. But everything has come down to Wednesday's game against Argentina, as we always thought it would.

I'm really excited for it. You might think I'd be desperate for a goal after going close a couple of times in the first two games, but I'm just desperate for three points. Argentina will fancy their chances after getting a point with Japan and narrowly losing to England because, if they beat us, they can still finish second. I'll be honest, I've been a bit surprised by just how good they've been and their ranking doesn't do them justice, so it's going to be a really tough match.

I know some people will have been looking at all the goal difference stuff in the other groups to work out what we need to do to finish as one of the best third-placed sides, but we just need to win. If you start worrying about what you can't control, it can affect you, so all we can do is get the three points, take a breather, then do the maths. And if we do that, I think we get an extra day to enjoy being in Paris while we wait to see if we've done enough...

Erin Cuthbert was speaking to BBC Sport's Richard Winton