PARDUBICE — Erin Cuthbert expressed joy and relief on her first appearance of the season as Scotland secured a 2-0 victory away to the Czech Republic in the Women's World Cup round-one play-off first leg in Pardubice, leaving them well placed ahead of Tuesday's return in Paisley where Sweden are the likely opponents for the winners.
Chelsea captain Cuthbert, 28, who is yet to feature at club level this season following a knee injury, came on as a substitute as captain Caroline Weir broke the deadlock with a stunning strike before fellow substitute Claire Emslie finished superbly for the second. Emslie's goal was her first since becoming a mother, with her son and mother in attendance in Pardubice.
"It's so good," Cuthbert told BBC Scotland. "It's been such a long summer. It's always great to come on and play for my country again - I'll never take it for granted when I get a serious injury. I'm just glad to get back on a football pitch. The relief, the amount of self-doubt that you have, the amount of stress - am I going to be back to the same level, how am I going to perform, is my knee going to be alright? All those things run through your head." She added: "It was a bad one. I was in crutches and a brace for the best part of a month. I lost a fair amount of muscle and over the summer I was trying to rebuild all of that again. It's been a really, really hard journey."
"I'm incredibly proud of her," Cuthbert said of Emslie. "I have an enormous amount of respect for her. Everything's just so impressive - to be a mum, to play at the highest level." The Czech Republic were given a late reprieve when the award of a penalty was overturned, while Cuthbert was left "flabbergasted" that a late challenge on her inside the box did not result in a spot-kick. Despite being "delighted" with the result, she cautioned that 2-0 remains a "dangerous" lead, adding: "We're a good team and when we play on the front foot, we can hurt teams. The best form of attack is defence."