England produced their ‘Get Out of Jail’ card with an equaliser in the last 30 seconds in a 1-1 draw against Russia in Linköping and it was substitute Toni Duggan who played it…
Striker Toni Duggan came off the bench on Monday night to save England’s bacon with an injury time goal against Russia writes CATHERINE ETOE. The Everton player’s strike keeps England hopes of a quarter final berth alive. There is only the small matter of a victory against France to pull off now, but the 21-year-old is adamant that England have it in them to progress. She Kicks caught the Under-19 Euro Championship winner as she made her way to the team coach after the 1-1 draw with Russia and here is what she had to say…
On scoring the equaliser:
I’m made up, I was made up just to get on the pitch to be honest, I’ve been scoring for Everton so I’m glad today but obviously disappointed that we only drew when we set out to win the game. I hit the bar a few moments before and I thought that one was in and I was just glad I got a second chance because you don’t get that often at this level so I was just thankful really.
On coming on as a substitute:
I‘ve been sitting on the bench now and waiting for my time and thankfully Hope gave me it and I just wanted to get out there and play football like I’ve been playing at my club and show what I can do. We knew it was a massive game and if we had lost we would have been going home so I was just thankful that I could help the team really.
On the reaction from her team mates at full time:
They were thanking me really. I don’t think you realise what it means until after the game but the situation was that if we lost we were going home but I’m made up and the girls are made up but we’ll have to review this game because we should have won it.
On the goal:
I just remember missing the first chance, hitting the crossbar with my left foot. Again it bobbled around the box and Ells won a flick on and it was just instinctive.
On her family’s reaction:
My mum has never flown before so she has come out and it’s her first flight and her first holiday and my little cousin is out with them and they are at all the Everton games with me so I just blew them a kiss and said that goal was for them because it was.
On France:
As a team of course we can beat them, we are confident and believe in our ability. It will be a tough game but on our day I think we can beat any team in this tournament we’ve just got to go away and recover now and come back confident that we can win it.
(Images: www.jamesprickett.co.uk)
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