Mark Sampson was understandably very content with the comprehensive 4-0 victory and the performance his Lionesses put on in Switzerland, in very hot conditions, on Saturday, just gone…
This is some of what he had to say after the game (or scroll to the bottom for the link to LISTEN to the longer conversation).
On the win itself:
“Yes, it was comprehensive. It’s been a really good week for us, I think we always wanted to get the prep camp off to a good start and the work of the players, the professionalism, has set the bar where we want it to be set. It was always going to be a difficult challenge this game, because the players have obviously come off the back of the WSL season and we go away for a six day break before we get stuck into the next phase of our training camp, so to play in the manner we did we are really pleased. A clean sheet – which is important to us – four goals and probably left a few out there on the park but the team looked connected, looked strong, looked fit, so we’re in a good spot but we’ve got a lot of work to do between now and July 19th.”
On the pressure England put on Switzerland, playing out from the back and the success of that but also the energy it takes:
“It’s easy in football to tell a team to do something – we’re a team that agree what the right strategy is and buy into it 100% – but to execute a plan, like we did today, in the heat of today, takes a hell of a lot of work and the work rate of the team was outstanding. We demand that. If there’s one thing we can do, it is we can run. We will always make sure we run and we ran hard today and it made a big difference to us. We created opportunities form high up regains, scored goals from regains and played the majority of the game in the right areas, which is important for us.”
On goalscorers Fran Kirby and Jodie Taylor:
“Never in doubt from my end. Two outstanding footballers. Instinctive finishers. Great for Fran, to come back into the team and get a goal will give her a lot of confidence. I still think she’s growing into it, in terms of finding her feet – training has been a little bit tough, in terms of the raise of level from club – but great to get a goal under her belt today and Jodie scored two, should have got another one, without being fouled, so really pleasing for those girls. And also I thought just the general attacking threat we posed, I’m not sure there was five minutes in the went by when we weren’t threatening their goal. And let’s not forget this is a Switzerland team that are very, very competitive. A lot of people have talked about them as outside bets in the summer, they were narrowly defeated by Norway and they will argue they probably should have played us int he quarter final in 2015 after dominating against Canada but losing 1-0. So it’s important to note this is an excellent Switzerland team but our team were strong today and its a really good platform for us to kick on from when we get back in camp.
LISTEN: Including MARK SAMPSON, MARY EARPS & FRAN KIRBY
