On a tough night for England in their opening fixture against Spain, we spoke to two players to get their reactions to a devastating defeat…
TWICE they went behind, twice England came back. But a scrappy goal in injury time meant Hope Powell’s England took nothing from their opening Euro 2013 match against Spain but disappointment. Speaking after the 3-2 defeat at Linkoping Arena, England defender Alex Scott and striker Ellen White both spoke of the group’s determination to turn things around when they face Russia on Monday. Spain’s outstanding captain Veronica Boquete was understandably more upbeat. She Kicks grabbed a quick word with all three and here are their impressions of the game…
Spain skipper Veronica Boquete on the game:
It was a really tight game. We knew we needed to have the possession, we needed to try to play between lines and especially in the second half, we found this space. Especially in the second half we were a little afraid for the physical difference but we felt comfortable and I think we deserve this win.
On being tournament underdogs:
We are for sure, everybody thought that Spain was here just for enjoyment but we are ready and we have waited for this moment for 16 years since we played in the last tournament and now we have a good generation, we have good players, a good team and we want to do something big. Now we believe in our game and our style so we keep continuing to do this kind of game and develop players and just enjoy.
On the next game against France on Monday:
We know that France is one of the favourites of this tournament, it is so difficult to play against them and the normal thing is that they win, but this is football and is 90 minutes, we can do it and we will try and see what happens.
England defender Alex Scott on the game:
I thought we didn’t really get out of second gear. We know, everyone, that we can step up our performance and play better. But we’ve been in this situation before, last time we lost our first game and it’s still all to play for and we just have to keep our heads up. It’s re-grouping now and believing in ourselves that we can push on and get a win in the second game.
On Spain:
We knew all about them, we’d done our homework. It was us getting out the blocks and we didn’t really do that. I think we need to reflect on us. We’ll analyse the game and try and take positives and see what we’ve done wrong but it’s all about the next game for us now and we are going to have to put this one to bed.
England striker Ellen White on the loss:
We are pretty disappointed to have lost, we got ourselves back in it twice and thought we could perhaps have come away with a draw but we were unlucky in the end to lose it but I think there are a lot of lessons for us to learn. We weren’t at the races early doors, conceded early and then we scored one back and I thought we would maybe push on. We did stick together as a team which is positive but we’ll look back at it, analyse it and learn from it. We’ve still got two games to qualify for the quarter finals so we need to look forward to the next two.
On Spain:
We knew they would be technically gifted, very good at moving the ball quickly. We knew they’d be up for the game, we’ve beaten them on two or three occasions so there was a bit of revenge as well. I thought they played very well and when we came back they kept on fighting.
Looking ahead:
We’ve got great characters in the side to pick everybody up, we’ve got experience and youth to hopefully pick ourselves up for the Russia game. The games come thick and fast which is probably a good thing so we’ll rest and recover and look forward to playing Russia and hopefully put the lessons that we learnt against Spain tonight into the Russia game and hopefully come out with a win, which is what we need now.
On her own performance:
I’m always critical of my own performance. I’ll look back at it and see what I could improve on. Disappointed not to have finished the cross from Karen Carney, I should probably have done a bit better with that. I just wanted to work hard for the team, it was quite tough up top but I thought everyone put in a shift tonight, we are just disappointed with the loss.
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