England captain Millie Bright vowed the Lionesses are prepared to play the ‘game of their lives’ when they face Spain in their first World Cup final.
England could be crowned world champions for the first time since the men’s team triumphed in 1966, but on the eve of the monumental encounter the skipper’s focus was fully in the present.
And, while no one needs to explain the magnitude of the moment to the 29-year-old defender, she urged her team-mates to approach the most important match in their history no differently from any other.
Last training session of our journey
— Lionesses (@Lionesses)
Bright said: “I think for us we live in the moment, and yes it’s a World Cup final, but for us our mentality is it’s another game.
“I think our preparations don’t change no matter the stage in the tournament and to me that’s the key part of preparation.
“I want our players to prepare in any way they need to, like they normally do, and we’ve got a game plan that we have to go out and execute, but I think everyone knows how big this is.
“I think it’s been players’ dreams for years.
“We know how passionate our nation is back home and how much they want us to win. But for us, there is a process. We have a game plan to execute. We need to play the game of our lives.”
England boss Sarina Wiegman appointed Bright captain after Euro 2022-winning skipper Leah Williamson was ruled out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury ahead of the tournament.
Williamson will be in the stands on Sunday when the Lionesses walk out at the 75,000-plus seat Stadium Australia, led by Chelsea’s Bright, who insisted she would be thinking more about the squad than the symbol on her sleeve.
She said: “It’s massive, but it’s massive for the team. I think it’s always ‘we before me’ for me.
“I’ve always said, no matter whether I’ve got the armband or not, it’s a huge privilege and honour and I think it will be the biggest moment in our careers.”
England boss Sarina Wiegman has already become the first manager to lead two sides to the World Cup final after accomplishing the same feat with the Netherlands four years ago.
The enormously popular Dutchwoman also has two European championship trophies with those countries, but so far football’s most coveted title eludes her.
She said: “Playing a final is really special. I know that. I never take anything for granted.
“Playing in another is really special, but we’re just preparing for the game. Yes, it is a final, but we don’t do anything different than we do normally.
“When you go so far in the tournament people get more and more excited and that’s what you see.”
Tomorrow Wiegman faces the dilemma of whether to start forward Lauren James, who scored three times and picked up the same number of assists before she was sent off in England’s last-16 clash with Nigeria for stepping on the back of defender Michele Alozie and hit with a two-game suspension.
Replacement Ella Toone scored in England’s 3-1 semi-final victory against Australia, but serial winner Wiegman, who feels the available-again James has been sufficiently punished, could still be tempted to make a swap for the prodigious Chelsea talent.
She said: “Of course she really regretted that moment straight away. She apologised, she was punished for that and we all know this should not happen in football.
“She started training again and we supported her, because sometimes when you’re not that experienced at this level some fatigue comes in the game and you have just a split second where you lose your emotions.
“That’s a mistake, that’s a hard learning lesson, but now she’s ready to play in the game.”
