England are undefeated in Group B of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup but they are also yet to win, which puts them at risk of exiting the competition on Saturday when they face Brazil.
The Young Lionesses have shown versatility in their two games, being able to match two completely different sides, Nigeria and North Korea, but the real test comes now.
They must beat Brazil to have a chance of progressing in the competition as the opposition is currently sitting in second of the group with three points. The Brazilians narrowly beat Nigeria but were unable to overcome North Korea at Prince Mohammed International Stadium.
Ahead of the crunch tie, England skipper Lotte Wubben-Moy and talisman Georgia Stanway spoke to SheKicks about their determination to stay in Jordan.
SK: How does it feel to be out here in Jordan and at a World Cup at a young age?
Lotte Wubben-Moy (left): It’s pretty amazing, I never thought I’d be at the World Cup this young, I always thought that would come later. It’s a testament to the team for getting here.
Georgia Stanway (right): It’s a once in a life time opportunity, we’ve worked so hard to get here and we don’t want it to end. Jordan isn’t a place that we’d get to often so it’s good to see different cultures.
SK: You’ve been here for quite a while now because of the acclimatisation camp, is everyone still getting along since you’re living in close quarters?
LWM: People have probably heard this a lot but we’re like a family, we do everything together. That’s what our ethos is so we take that onto the pitch as well, so we fight together.
GS: It’s important that we have time away from each other as well, we’ve been on the road for two weeks now and you can get a bit aggy with each other, but we’re all close. You have that space then you come back to your friends, it’s just fun.
SK: You’re training on grass today, is that in preparation for playing against Brazil which will also be on grass?
LWM: The game the other day was on astro [turf] and everything that happens on astro is 10 times worse than on grass so we needed the recovery today to make sure we’re in top form for Brazil. We’re looking after ourselves because we want to win that game, we want to see it out.
SK: What is your mindset going into the must win Brazil game?
LWM: Every game we go into with a must win mentality, even if we’d won yesterday we’d be going in with the same mentality. We’re going out to win it, we don’t want to leave early.
GS: It’s another game that we’ve got to tick off, I think we’re all ready for it because we’ve prepared. These next few days leading up to the game we’ve got to make sure everything is right going into Brazil on Saturday. We just want it to come soon as!
England will take on Brazil at Al Hassan International Stadium, Irbid at 2pm (GMT) and will be televised on British EuroSport 2.
