Accidental Miracle |Erling Haaland|

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We're met by our tiny little mascot kids and the little girl I had was so sweet as she gave me a tiny hug.

I bend down to her and say, "Are you ready?"
She nods slowly and I let out a small chuckle holding her hand.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the finalists of the 2023 women's champions league, Manchester City and FC Barcelona!"

This was it. It just honestly felt so surreal to be in this moment as we stepped out into a fully sold-out stadium.

It was clear who our fans were and Barcelona's were due to the distinct colours in our kits.

The champions league anthem began to play as I looked down at my little mascot whose hand was intertwined with mine.
"We've got this okay," I smile rubbing her back as she nods.

We all form a line side by side as usual with the four referees being the ones to divide our team from Barcelona.

Once the anthem had come to an end we all began to clap as did the rest of the stadium.

That was the mascot's children's queue to leave the pitch as I beamed playfully ruffling the little girl's hair as a smile formed on her face as she walked away.

Then we one by one shook each of the referees' hands along with the Barcelona players.

They began to call out the Barcelona lineup followed by ours as the cheers could be heard with each name called.

At that time, Hillary our photographer decided that we could use this short amount of time for a team photo before the final and so we did.

Once the photo was taken, we huddled up for a team talk.
"Listen...this is a moment that we'll almost never forget, I want us all to make the most of it and make sure we take that trophy home because every single one of us deserves it, so let's win this the city way!" Our captain Steph told us.

We all began to disperse across the pitch as I began to adjust my hair in its place.

Once Steph had come back, she told us that we'd be kicking off the match meaning I'd start with the ball.

Eventually, we were given the all-clear and the whistle was blown.

I made my first pass to Lauren so that I was able to find a pocket of space to lure the defensive midfielders into attack creating space for Chloe to run into.

Lauren takes a touch and is aware of my making a run down the left wing so she can make a long ball pass to me which I was able to receive and control before taking it further down the wing with a Barcelona defender hot on my heels and as I got to the 18-yard box I was faced with the same defender forcing me to pass back to Khadija who had followed my run.

She passes it back out wide and back to the right wing where Chloe can drive into the box on her own with defenders following her closely so her first thought was to find me so she passed it back to me and I was able to have a shot was it was an easy save for their goalkeeper Sandra Paños.

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Not long later, it's in our half and our goalkeeper Ellie plays it wide to Alex who is able to play it up to Laura but she's forced to pass back to Alex as she's now been put in a three-on-one situation, but Alex it's tackled moments after gaining possession leaving the Barcelona player an immense amount of space to have a shot within the box, and so she does and it just brushes past Ellie's fingertips and into the goal.