England forward Nikita Parris is keen to start her first Women’s World Cup with a bang.
The Lionesses’ quest for glory at the tournament in France begins on Sunday when they face Group D rivals Scotland.
There is set to be considerable focus over the coming days and weeks on Parris, England’s top-scorer across their qualifying matches with six goals.
The 25-year-old, who is joining French powerhouses Lyon this summer, netted 19 Women’s Super League goals for Manchester City last season.
Dangerous combo…👀 #OneEnglandpic.twitter.com/gYqitioXUo— Nikita Parris (@lilkeets) June 5, 2019
Parris told Press Association Sport: “It’s important we get those Ws on the board and I think it’s important that as an individual I put out a good performance to really get my World Cup started.
“In every game I have a mindset of if I get two chances I want to put away two goals.
“You can’t predict how the game is going to go, but what you can say is if a chance does come I want to put it away and make sure I look confident in front of that goal.
“Because you need to have a good feel going through the rest of the tournament and it’s important we score goals because ultimately goals win games.”
But when are the #Lionesses playing? WELL….#FIFAWWCpic.twitter.com/seapCRY0iq— Lionesses (@Lionesses) June 7, 2019
Scotland – Women’s World Cup debutants as a team – were thrashed 6-0 by England when the sides last met, in their opening match at Euro 2017.
Parris, who came off the bench in that game, said: “This is a different Scotland. They lost a lot of players – Kim Little, Jennifer Beattie – before the tournament even kicked off.
“This is a different game, a different tournament. Scotland have really done so well to get here.
“It’s their first World Cup tournament, it’s massive for them and they are going to come out fighting. They’ll want to get their World Cup off to a good start and so do we.”
England, who also face Argentina and Japan in Group D, arrived in France on Tuesday.
Parris added: “We’ve been raring to go since it was announced Scotland was going to be our first game in the group.
“We’re so excited for the game and we’ve just tried to keep our emotions in check to ensure we’re preparing right in training.
“Training is competitive – everyone wants to win every game, whether it’s head tennis, five-a-side, because we’re really making sure we’re in that state of winning mentality, to ensure we go into that Scotland game ready to go.”
