In a career that has seen her become the first British footballer to win two hundred international caps, Scotland captain Gemma Fay believes that their Euro 2017 opener against England is her biggest game to date, writes MARK CARRUTHERS.
The two home nations meet in Utrecht on Wednesday night and for Fay and Scotland it presents a new challenge.
The game will mark Scotland’s first at a major tournament and they couldn’t come much bigger than a meeting with old rivals England.
The Stajnan keeper goes into the game on the back of bringing up a double century of appearances for her country and is relishing the challenge of meeting the Lionesses.
“Rivalry? Do we have a rivalry?” joked Fay, in the pre-match press conference in front of a crowded room of reporters.
“Rachel (Brown-Finnis) is here [working for BBC Radio] and I have played against her in a couple of times in England v Scotland games, as a one-off game it’s a fantastic occasion to be part of. As a player – everyone that plays for Scotland and everyone that plays for England – everyone wants to be part of such a big game.
“It’s a huge rivalry but first and foremost it’s our opening match in the European Championship.
“I can only speak for myself and yes, it is the biggest game of my career. It is possibly the biggest game for some other players but it is probably the most exciting for us all.”
Fay won her historic 200th cap in Scotland’s 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland earlier this month and will look to add more during Euro 2017.
However, she denied that meeting England would mean more than any of her other Scotland appearances.
“Every cap is a huge honour, as anyone that has played international football will tell you. A lot of hard work that goes into it, whether you win one or two caps. But I am absolutely delighted to have been given the chance to play for my national team and to represent my country on this stage.
“It’s been a long time coming and I think we are all relishing it.”
Scotland are ranked as one of the outsiders to win the tournament and face a tough task to get out of a group containing two of the fancied sides in the tournament.
Wednesday’s meeting with England is followed by games against Portugal and a Spain side that have been tipped to perform well in Holland. Scotland’s cause is not helped by the fact that they are missing key players.
Defender Jen Beattie (ankle injury) and star midfielder Kim Little (anterior cruciate ligament injury) are both missing from the squad, as are Emma Mitchell and Lizzie Arnot (and Hayley Lauder is not fit enough to start) but Fay believes that their absence has helped pull the Scotland squad closer together.
She said, “Obviously there are players like Kim Little, Jenny Beattie, who we would love to be here because they put so much into the team, to help us to this point.
“We would love them to experience this, but they aren’t here and that brings us closer as a team. We have had messages from them all, wishing us luck. Kim is over here commentating [with Channel 4] and she is with us all of the way.
“So we are a tight unit and I think we have shown that in the last couple of games with the new players that have come in. We have that bond as a team, we will face adversity head on.”
After years of heart-breaking near misses (losing on an away goal v Russia in play-off for EURO 2009 and with the last kick of the game v Spain in the play-off for EURO 2013), Scotland finally secured qualification for a major tournament by finishing as one of the six best runners-up in the newly-expanded tournament.
It marks the beginning of a new era for Scotland, and Fay believes that her squad are well-placed to cope with the new expectations they have experienced with their historic qualification.
She explained, “I think the difference (in qualifying) is that when the tournament was expanded [to 16 teams from 12], we were expected to be one of the qualifiers. That is different, usually we have been drawn against a France or a Germany in a qualifying group, so we didn’t really have that expectation.
“That was something new for us. Then, once we qualified, there is that expectation. We have qualified for a major championship, we have talked about qualifying and having the chance to do that and show what we are about. It is something that we relish, we are so looking forward to this – people that worked their entire careers for that.”
And finally they have the opportunity to do that, on the European stage, they surely will do everything to make the most of it.
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