England face Scotland on Friday, in the Cyprus Cup and it sets Arsenal team mates against each other…
Scotland’ s Arsenal stars Kim Little and Jennifer Beattie will aim to out-gun their fellow Gunners when they line up against England at the Cyprus Cup on Friday writes Tony Leighton.
(Image: Kim Little in action against New Zealand on Wednesday/LORRAINE HILL)
Little and Beattie are the two Arsenal representatives in the Scots’ squad while England have no fewer than six Gunners in theirs.
And after sharing the goals as the Scots beat the Auld Enemy 2-0 at the Cyprus Cup in 2011, the dynamic duo want to heap more misery on Hope Powell’s team.
That result two years ago was the first time England had suffered defeat by Scotland in 34 years and after 17 successive wins against their neighbours.
Little said: “We’d love to beat England again. That last time was a tremendous victory and a very big day for us.
“There was nothing lucky about it, we played really well and deserved the win – and after not beating England for so long it was a great feeling.
“Games against the Auld Enemy always have a bit of added spice and it will be the same this time, and we’re really looking forward to the game.
“It’s going to be interesting coming up against Arsenal team-mates, but once we’re on the pitch they’ll just be another opponent we’re trying to beat.
“And we don’t want to beat them just because they’re England – we want to pick up some group points after losing our first game to New Zealand.”
While the Scots were losing England were beating Italy 4-2 with three Arsenal players – Jordan Nobbs, Steph Houghton and Ellen White – on the scoresheet.
White said: “It’ll be strange playing against Jenny and Kim, but we have to treat them like any other opponents and forget friendships until the game’s over.
“We want to get our own back for their win against us last time, but more importantly we want another victory to stay top of the group.
“If we beat Scotland and then New Zealand on Monday it would put us in the final, and that would be a great way to end the tournament.”
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