On their day, England can beat any team at this World Cup… but there are no more second chances now
THERE are no “tomorrow” games. This is it. You cannot afford to slip up once you hit this stage of a World Cup. You can’t have dips in a game either – because now you will be punished. But the hardest thing is that, despite firmly believing you can go all the way, there is […]
THERE are no “tomorrow” games. This is it.
You cannot afford to slip up once you hit this stage of a World Cup.
You can’t have dips in a game either – because now you will be punished.
But the hardest thing is that, despite firmly believing you can go all the way, there is still a chance you can get knocked out.
And when that happens you are on a plane home the next morning.
You have this feeling of, “Should I pack or do I leave my suitcase as it is?”
You just don’t know what is going to happen and that was the worst feeling for me.
You don’t know if the next day you will be going through and travelling to your next game – or if you’re going to be at home watching the rest of the World Cup on your sofa.
[During the World Cup] I played every game like it was my last because you never know when it’s going to end
Alex Scott
I played every game like it was my last because you never know when it’s going to end.
I don’t think my mentality changed going into the knockout rounds at all because I was even playing the first game as if it was going to be my last ever game at a World Cup.
England are gradually getting better.
We’ve seen improvements from our opener against Scotland, then Argentina and against Japan last time out.
I don’t think we’ve sent out a statement as such but we’re reaching the business end of the competition now having won three games – and we’ve still not been at our best.
CAM BE TOUGH
I played against Cameroon at the 2012 Olympic Games with Team GB.
Even though they are the weakest team on paper in terms of rankings, I remember our game being tough.
They were fast, they were physical and I recall the message going into that game was about how quickly we would have to pass the ball so they couldn’t get near us.
But Cameroon will take a lot of confidence from the way they have got through to the knockout rounds.
They will want to cause an upset against England and send us packing.
The Lionesses will have to keep that in mind – we cannot get drawn into their physical game.
The African side have improved since the 2015 tournament in Canada.
They have more discipline and look more organised.
At times they are sitting back and defending where before they were open.
We could play through them in 2012, as they didn’t have a sense of tactical discipline.
They’ve worked at it and defensively look more of a unit.
They will be looking to hit us on the break and they are fast on the counter.
most read in football
I still believe Phil Neville can get the Lionesses to the final of this World Cup and we can win it.
Do I look at the players and performances of the USA and France and think we’ve got a squad capable of beating them? Absolutely.
On our day I think we can beat any team.
