Leah Williamson aims for history with EURO double to prove that this England side are no ‘flash in the pan’.
Leah Williamson targets historic double to prove England are no ‘flash in the pan’.
As they are ready to defend their European title against Spain, Leah Williamson says England does not want their legacy to be a “flash in the pan.”
On Sunday, the Lionesses might become the first senior England team to win two major trophies, and the skipper could become one of the few players to experience both club and national success in the same year.
“The consistency and the landscape keeps changing and we’re trying to change with it and that’s a really hard thing to do,” she said. “Us staying in the tournament until the end proves the investment and the quality of the game in England is continuing to rise.
“You don’t just want to be a flash in the pan, a memory, and when we spoke before Euro 2022 we said it was the start of something. We’re still trying to play our role in that, we know how powerful that is and I hope what we do continues to grow and the respect for the women’s game, the respect for women and women’s sport in general, continues to grow.
“You feel like you share those things. Somebody has to wear an armband, somebody has to do that role, but we all just feel together and it’s less of an ‘I won this’ and more ‘we’, always,” she said.
“There’ll be lovely things to talk about later down the line if you want to look at success that way. I would probably say that success to me is happiness in your circumstance and your company.”
Asked how her decision-making process works in the dying moments of games with England trailing, the head coach, Sarina Wiegman, said: “First, I’m having a heart attack too. I just don’t show it.
“We want to be best prepared, that’s our style of play. We’re also trying to prepare for what can happen in the game and what we need. We figured out what players we might need in certain circumstances if we want to change things. That’s what we talk about all the time and that’s how we prepare for a game. We have spoken through all the scenarios, but then during the game it’s a sense of what you feel is necessary.”