Hate To Love You ~ Guro Reiten

Clash Day

I got up early this morning, it was the long anticipated day. Our match against Arsenal. To say i wasn't excited would be a lie. I got to our training ground and got to our break room. I started a conversation with Niamh and Lauren about god knows what until i got dragged away by the arm. It was Millie. She pulled me towards our little group; Me, Millie, Guro, Erin and Sam.

"Don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all" she said smiling at me.

"Smile for the camera girls" one of the media people said holding a massive camera in his hands. We all smiled and then for the second we all pulled stupid faces. "Thanks guys, good luck later" he said walking off. After a couple of minutes we all got called to go to the coach. I grabbed myself a water and went over to Zećira so we could get our usual seats.

"It's gonna be cold out there today" she said to me whilst shivering.

"I'm not ready, i hate the cold"

"Wait till you come to Nordic countries, this is nothing compared to how cold it is over there" she laughed with me. We put my AirPod's in and started watching a random show on Netflix. Usually we watch a film but Arsenal isn't massively far away so we decided against it. We arrived after about 50 minutes due to traffic and headed straight in to warm up. I did some passing with Guro. We might've been messing around a tad bit but not enough to get told off. We did some sprints and then some shooting before heading into the changing rooms for a team talk with Emma. She was explaining how we had to score today. "It doesn't matter if we draw, we are not loosing" she fired deeply at us. She said a few more words and then left to let us get changed.

"You excited then Rena?" Erin asked from beside me.

"Stupid question" i smiled. "Of course i am"

"What about Katie McCabe? You excited to go against her" she teased knowing that me and Katie never got on whilst playing but when we're off pitch, we're always having a laugh.

"Buzzing" i said sarcastically.

"You're so competitive" she laughed at me.

"And you're so annoying"

"Don't be a hater"

I just glared at her and carried on getting changed. We had a 4-2-3-1 formation and our line up for this match was;

•Z. Mušović
•N.Charles
•K.Buchanan
•M.Bright
•M.Eriksson
•E.Cuthburt
•R.De Santos
•L.James
•J.Fleming
•G.Reiten

We all went and lined up in the tunnel. The Arsenal squad each had mascots, which was super sweet. I did my usual fingers, ankles and neck cracking to ease off any nerves. I then looked down the line for Lia Wälti, i was marking her for this match, i knew she was tough to go against so i was preparing myself. Luckily Katie McCabe wasn't starting so i was slightly relieved. My whole body shivered as the cold January breeze blew down the tunnel making my body tense up. I felt hands grab my shoulders and massage them, leaving my body tense but not because of the cold, because of butterflies. I turned to see Guro smiling at me.

"Stop stressing"

"You know me so well" i rolled my eyes playfully. I wanted to pull her into a tight embrace so bad, but we had to be professional. Especially since there were little kids with the Arsenal players. Both teams headed out to the pitch, lining up next to each other. Magda and Kim Little shook hands and then flipped a coin deciding what side we were starting on, we got left. We all got into formation and before i knew it, the match started.

The first half was fairly slow, there were a few corners and shots here and there from both teams but nothing exciting. Towards the end of the first half though, it got a bit too rough for my liking. The Arsenal players had the ball and were running towards our goal, Lauren took it to her own hands and fouled one of their players. Resulting in a yellow card. Not exactly what we wanted but i'd rather it be a yellow than a red. Soon after that, the whistle went and the score was unfortunately 0-0.