Its me and you

This team

It's been about a week since we made it into the quarter finals of the Euros. We haven't had too much of an intense week. We had a recovery day after playing Northern Ireland and then Sarina let us have a free day after that. Me, Leah, Keira, Lucy, Georgia and Beth all went to play golf and honestly, I've never seen such a shambles in my life. I can add golf to the list of things I am not good at. Unsurprisingly Leah was actually pretty good and beat us all, which obviously she still gloats about when given the chance. 

The rest of the week we have had training days and gym. I am starting to feel really comfortable in training, both the girls and Sarina have really encouraged me and I do feel like a part of this team now. 

Today is the last day before we head out to the quarter finals to play Spain. We have just finished our final training session before week, we worked on spacing in the midfield and long crosses and balls into the area, before finishing with a small 11 a side game. I feel really confident about tomorrow's game, although Spain are one of the best teams in the world it feels good to come in as underdogs and I know we are more than capable of beating them. 

We headed back to our rooms as Leah comes up to me asking if we can watch a film tonight. "Of course we can darling, do you want me to ask G to stay in your room with Beth or do you wanna invite them to watch as well?" I ask.

"They can come as well, will be nice to have a chill night before the game" Leah smiles as she responds. 

"Okay Le, I'll text you when me and Georgia are ready so you and Beth can come over?" 

"Sounds good y/nickname, see you soon" she says giving me a quick kiss before she heads off to hers and Beth's room to get ready. After me and G shower and change into pjs I text Leah to tell them we are ready whenever they are. *Won't be long x* Leah texts back quickly. I tell G and then around 10 mins later there is a knock at the door. 

Georgia opens the door to Beth and Leah both carrying trays of food and snacks. "We snuck food up from the dining hall and the snacks were in our room, don't tell anyone" Beth giggles as her and Leah come into the room. Me and Leah sit in my bed while Beth and Georgia are in G's bed. 

"What film are we watching then?" Georgia asked.

"I'm putting my vote in for Harry Potter" I pipe up. Leah agrees with me. 

"Georgia I wouldn't disagree with them two they make quite a team" Beth states.

"Too right we do" Leah agrees . So of course we end up watching Harry Potter. One film later and we are all full on food and sleep as hell. Georgia asks Beth if she wants to stay, Beth agrees arguing that it is easier than crawling back to her own room. We all laugh and get into bed. 

"No funny business you two, we are all here tonight." Georgia tells us.

"Goodnight guys" Leah says ignoring her comment. "Goodnight little one" she whispers to me giving me a kiss on the forehead before she pulls me into her chest to cuddle. 

The next day 

We all wake up around 6:30 when our alarms go off, I switch them off and pull Leah in closer to cuddle some more before we have to get up. I can hear giggling in the bed next to me, I turn over to see what all the fuss is about and before I know it me and Leah are covered in freezing cold water. "WHAT THE HELL GUYS" I scream at them. Leah shoots up out of the bed "oh you two better run" I laugh as Leah chases them out of the room, I follow and peer out into the hall.

Just as I do I see Keira and Lucy peak out of their room, they look at me and ask what happened "Beth and Georgia threw water on me and Leah to wake us up and as you can see she's not happy". They both laugh and head back into their room as I also head back into mine. I'll let Leah deal with those two I want a shower. 

After I come back out Georgia is back in our room and apologises all while laughing. I told her I don't mind but she better watch out for Leah now. I tell her to get ready quick we haven't got long before we need to be on the coach to the game. 

We made it to the coach and Leah made me and her sit away from Georgia and Beth, I know she is pissed off but I also know that a lot of it exaggerated. We sit in a double seat in the back corner and Leah pulls me in so that we can just cuddle together and watch stupid videos while we drive to the match.

At the match

The team sheet was announced for this game, I wasn't surprised, it is an important game and Sarina needs her best team. This is my first call up I can't expect too much too fast. We all get changed and head out to the pitch for a warm up. The subs, including me head to the bench while the starting 11 warm up.

Mine and Leah's eyes meet while the Spanish sing their national anthem and before I know it I'm mouthing 'I love you' to her. I start to panic a little, what if she thinks it's too soon but before I can second guess myself anymore she has a massive grin on her face and mouths 'I love you' right back to me. And then before I know it the whistle blows and the girls start.

It is a very slow half with England have less of the possession but we knew this would be the case. We planned to focus very highly on defence and not letting Spain get balls through and it seemed to be working, they had a few shots but Mary had it covered making some amazing saves. We had a few shots but not of them finding the back of the net. And just like that it was half time and we made our way into the changing room. 

I didn't get chance to talk to Leah during half time as Sarina had a lot of tactics and feedback for the team to take into the second half. We changed up our set piece tactics as the Spanish were starting to realise what we were doing, plus it wasn't really working anyway. Sarina also informed us that she would be making some subs in the second half. With that we made our way back onto the pitch for the second half.

The half start very similar to the first with possession changing back and forth between the teams, unfortunately Spain got a break through in the 58th minute and managed to score. Not long after this Sarina told me and Ella to warm up, we did so and then we were subbed on a few minutes later. 

Not much happened until about 5 minutes until the end of the match we had a corner, Beth sent the ball in, Alessia headed it but missed it bounced back out and Ella got the finish and the goal. We had 4 minutes left and all was level, the whistle blew for full time meaning we would have to go into extra time to get the winner. 

In the talk between full time and extra time Sarina told us that set pieces were where Spain was weakest so this is where our best chance lies and with that in mind the whistle blew and we were back to it. 

As extra time started I could tell we were more dominant and it didn't take long for us to start up a counter attack. Keira played the ball into Georgia who dribbled her way closer to the box, no one was tackling her, G took one look up and put in an amazing strike from outside the box that powered into the net. We were 2-1 up, we all ran over to celebrate with her before heading back to our half for kick off. All we had to do now was defend for the next 25 minutes and you bet thats what we did.

WE DID IT, WE ARE THROUGH TO THE SEMI FINALS OF EURO 2022. 

We shook hands with the other team and then headed back to the changing room. Leah was the last one in, she ran up to me engulfing me in a hug and span me around she shouted "I love you" everyone looked our way silent for a moment and then cheered in celebration. This is it I am truly happy in this moment.

The celebrations carried on through the night with Millie and Rachel giving us some amazing singing performances. Me, Mary and Beth all made up some random dances, I can tell there are going to be a lot of videos from this night that I might regret but I do not care right now I am having fun with my best friends and nothing can ruin this day. 

I know these chapters might be getting repetitive I am sorry I just want to include all the euros games and then the story can develop into original storylines.