Alessia Russo says it’s a “great” feeling after two goals for the forward helped England to a 3-1 win against reigning Under 20 world champions Korea DPR in the team’s first game of the tournament reports RICH LAVERTY.
Russo’s brace came either side of Georgia Stanway’s second half strike and the University of North Carolina player believes England couldn’t have wanted anything more.
“We prepared well and we carried out the game plan, what more can you want from the first game?” said the two-goal heroine. “It’s three points and it’s definitely put us in a good position but it’s one game at a time and now we’ll rest and refresh for Wednesday.”
Speaking about her first goals at a World Cup at this level, Russo reserved praise for the whole team performance.
“It’s nice to score but I’d take the three points over anything. That’s what we were focused on, that’s what we’re out here to do and that’s what we’ve done.”
In a clear tactical move from Mo Marley, England’s attack pressed from the off and forced errors in the Korea DPR, a move Everton’s Chloe Kelly said was intentional.
“Going into the game we wanted to start the tournament with no fear and I think we just did that. We wanted press and I think we did that well today, we followed through the game plan.
Russo added, “We are looking to attack in this tournament so to start on the front foot and maintain that throughout the whole game and we’ll be looking to continue that through the whole tournament.”
When substitute Ja pulled a goal back for Korea DPR with 20 minutes to go, England didn’t let their heads drop.
Less than two minutes later Russo restored England’s two-goal cushion and believes it shows the togetherness the squad have been working towards.
“Definitely. We’re very resilient as a team so when we face adversity we’re quick to react and that’s how we want to be throughout our whole team.”
“The last few months we’ve been working on if things aren’t going on our way and we showed today we can fight back,” added Kelly.
“It’s about not dwelling on what’s happened and thinking about what’s next, credit to the whole team today because that’s what we did.”
The winger put in an excellent performance in both attack and defence but insists nobody is getting carried away of Wednesday’s clash with Brazil.
“We’ve got two tough games now and how we actually recover from this game. We can’t get too caught in the moment because we know tough games are ahead so now we have to focus and rest.”
This support is unbelievable ??❤️ pic.twitter.com/Cp8v7NEOat
— Chloé (@Chloe_Kelly98) August 5, 2018
