dreams to reality

46.

The final whistle had went. We are champions league winners. I fell to the ground, my legs had collapsed. 120 minutes. 5 goals. Barcelona 3 Chelsea 2. For the first time in my career I've won the champions league and scored a brace in the final.

Let me break it down how we got here.

After the win against arsenal in the first leg of the quarter final we went on the beat them 2-0 at home securing our semi final spot to which we were drawn to Lyon.

The home tie ended 1-1 at camp nou and it was all to play for away from home the following week. We ended up just grasping a 2-1 win with alexia scoring in the 89th minute to take us to the final. When it was announced we had Chelsea who had beaten real Madrid in the semis I was so excited. I'm still and arsenal fan at heart so it was gonna be exciting.

We went 1-0 in the 19th minute when I scored a header from a Lucy bronze cross. But the lead didn't last long as Chelsea's Sam Kerr got on the end of a through ball from Erin Cuthbert. She poked it on with only 25 played. It was 1-1 half time.

The second half started slow but gained pace very quickly as alexia was brought down from Millie bright in the penalty box. Alexia obviously scored making it 2-1 by the 60th minute. As we pushed for a third Chelsea caught us on the counter attack with Lauren James scoring from a 1v1 situation in the 78th minute. The rest of the 90 both teams were cautious, both throwing not too many bodies forward and leaving their defence open.

The first half of extra time both teams carried on that cautious approach. It began clear players were clearly struggling and needed one moment to steal the game. Luckily enough for me I still had one last ounce of embers left in me in the 119th minute. It was a long ball over the top of nouwen who had came on as a substitute, pina managed to keep it on play and pass the ball to alexia who was edge of the box. It was just me, alexia and 3 Chelsea players ingle, bright and eriksson. Alexia faked a shot which dragged 2 players out leaving me in a 1v1 with ingle, alexia passed the ball to me and I touched it past ingle, who was slow to react. I hit the ball into the bottom left corner and I heard the stadium erupt.
I didn't have any energy left to do a massive celebration so I just jogged to the corner flag and put my hand on it, the rest of the girls must of found energy as they all ran over and jumped on top of me.

We dropped to a 5-4-1 for the remaining minutes to see out the game, which we did.

I was in utter shock, I couldn't believe it. I'm just a girl from Scotland. Whose dreams have just came true.

"Oh my god we fucking did it" Keira shouted as she hugged me. I was in tears and she was too. "We are champions of Europe" I shouted back at her which total happiness and joy. I was laying on the floor with my top over my eyes, I did it dad. I won the champions league for you. I hope your proud of me up there. I hope mum is proud of me, she told me to follow my dreams and look at me now. I did it for them but most of all I did it for myself. The disappointment of Jonas telling me I wasn't good enough and all the injuries. Losing my parents. I did it for me. I deserve this. As we lifted the champions league their was one star in the sky, I knew it was them. I blew them a kiss before kissing both my wrists that had mum and dad written on them.

As we walked around the stadium I stopped at her. My girl. Leah Williamson. "I love you, I'm so proud" she mouthed to me, "I love you too" I mouthed back blowing her a kiss. We still hadn't posted about us yet, it's nearly been a year and we hadn't felt the need to tell the public. It was great, people just thought we were best friends and that was fine with us. I walked to to the area where she was and she came to the front. She pulled me into a hug, it's been 4 months since we'd last saw each other. I felt so relaxed in her arms, "I'm so proud" she said into my ear, I couldn't reply I just need to be with her. "Your doing them so proud, they've just witnessed a Bella smith master class with the best seats in the house" Leah added and I chuckled, "thank you lee, don't know what I'd do without you" I replied wiping away my tears. "Now go celebrate my champ, I've been waiting for 4 months so I'm sure I can wait another day" she said playfully rolling her eyes. "Thanks baby" I said quietly before winking at her, the fans went a little crazy when I winked at her but I just brushed past it. I mean I've saw the ship edits, they think we're rumoured to be dating but little did they know it's been nearly a year but it's also been just over a year since my mums passing. Leah could t be with me on the day as it was a few weeks ago and her season was still going.