Intrepid travelling reporter Sophie Lawson cornered Wales and Liverpool defender Sophie Ingle in Cyprus following their impressive 0-0 draw with Switzerland to ask about the game and if they are satisfied with their efforts in the tournament, so far.
SK: We know Switzerland can be a very imposing and attacking team, are you happy with the result today?
SI: We know they’re a really tough team and we wanted to minimise their chances and hopefully stop them from scoring and to be fair, they hit the post but I can’t really think of any other chances on goal, maybe one other so that’s a credit to us. Defending as a whole, it’s not just the backline or the ‘keeper, it’s the midfield and forwards getting back in and limiting their chances.
SK: There was a moment in the second half when it looked for all the world that they’d score, Laura O’Sullivan made two cracking saves and then you cleared the ball off of the line. What’s it like in that situation, do you want to go every which way?
SI: I think it was popping off everywhere and you don’t know when to react, sometimes you want to go to the ball and you’ve got your player to worry about too… I think I just thought I’ll go on the line and luckily it came to me and I could clear it. I think if it had gone anywhere else it might have gone in.
SK: Three games in, one win [Finland], one draw [Switzerland] and one loss [Italy], are you pleased with how the team has performed so far?
SI: Definitely. We’re obviously disappointed with the loss against Italy but again, they didn’t score from open play so it’s good from us but we’re just disappointed that they’re all set plays and we’ve worked really hard on set plays over the last few months. So, we were disappointed from that aspect but if you look at it today, we didn’t concede from any set pieces and I think we marked pretty well and limited them.
SK: The Cyprus and Algarve Cups are quite intense, as a player do you feel that you benefit from them?
SI: Cyprus Cup is always good for us because we have a lot of games in a short amount of time and each game, we build, you can see us growing as a team, I just wish more camps were a bit longer but we don’t have that luxury.
SK: You’ve got a couple of younger players in the camp, do you feel that your role changes when they come in?
SI: I just think I’m still myself and I’ll be the same to the older ones as I am to the younger ones, you know it’s like Jayne says, “It doesn’t matter what age you are, if you’re in the senior squad then you’re good enough to be here.” And if you’re a 16 year-old coming in, we expect the quality a 29 year-old would have, as long as they demand for themselves then we can demand of them.
Can we just add that we love a Welsh team line up pic too!
? The 'Welsh Way' of doing a team photo! #FINWAL #TogetherStronger #CyprusCup pic.twitter.com/W9NAFUhhod
— Wales ??????? (@Cymru) February 28, 2018
