Journey to glory

Chapter 45

We have a match vc Columbia in the quarterfinals.

We spent the last 72 hours preparing like mad, watching film on their last few games, getting individual notes about players who we will come up against and looking at our own tactics and changing them to give us an advantage. We changed a lot of our set pieces to use height as Columbia is smaller than us so the low balls across can be defended. So no we will bring up our taller players and the short queens will stay back in case it goes wrong.

Me and lessi have been spending all the time we can together. The little cheeky kisses in the hall getting caught multiple times and being teased about it from mostly Millie and Rach. Lucy saying she would get them to stop if I went to Barca which than follows the normal Leah and Beth dragging me away saying to Lucy I belong in arsenal and not to damage more "little brain with other peoples opinions". Me and lessi are going to get a dog when we go back, hopefully more than one I'm still trying to convince her.

It comes to the normal match day mornings with everyone doing their match day superstitions and well now traditions which they always do. We sit on the same seats on the bus and listen to music before arriving at the stadium. We have a good hour to ourselves, we walk the pitch meet some really early fans and mostly just chill and get into the right headspace.

Sarina tells us the lineup which is the same as the last game
    Mary
Lucy, Millie, Leah, Alex
                 Keira
         Georgia, y/n
   Beth, Rachel, hemp

We change into our kit and get ready to warm up, the pressure is starting to come on, I know it's not a team like Spain or Australia but it is the quarterfinals so no team will be bad at this stage.

The time comes when to sing the national anthems, moments later I'm standing in the middle of our half waiting for the game to kick off. And it does the referees whistle blows to start the game. We had kick off, with Rachel passing it back to me and me giving a short pass to Georgia who immediately boots it over the back line like we have practiced in training. Lauren hemp with her incredible pace gets on the end of the long hall and within 2 touch's hits it across the box to Beth, who buries the ball into the back of the net. I stood there in pure awe, like we scored in the first minute of the game. But we knew we couldn't stop the pressure.

For the first half we didn't hold back, we pressed them every time we lost the ball. We were so up the pitch that our back line was in their half. Our main plan was to always have the ball, and well it worked we had 86% possession at the end of the half. Keira also managed to score herself a goal. A brilliant one as well, right into to top right corner and she shot outside of the box.

We went into the dressing room for half time, and sarina had her usual words of encouragement and she showed us different plays to try during the game. For resting purposes Keira came off and Katie Zelem came on.
The second half began again and there was no comeback from Columbia. I managed to get myself a cheeky goal by kicking the ball between the keepers legs and I assisted a goal to lessi who scored with a header. Chloe Kelly came on for hempo and I came off for Jordan with about 10 mins to go.

The final score didn't change with us winning 4-0, and Georgia Stanway getting woman of the match.
The post game interviews and media took a long time, as we just found out we would be playing Australia in the semi final. And obviously this is their home ground as we would be playing them in Sydney, so some of the media wasn't so nice to do but it comes with the job.

All I wanted to do was rest and go to sleep wellllll until lessi came to my room and sat on my laps. And let's just say I didn't sleep.

The morning after was mostly recovery and more media. Me and lessi went out for a coffee and a small kick about ending in a conversation revolving our future and marriage and kids but I couldn't say much as well I think I'm too young to be thinking about it. Lessi understood in a way I think.
The day ended with a team bonding at the end which we watched the notebook which probably wasn't the smartest idea considering the amount of us that were crying at the end. And lessi cuddled into my shoulder sobbing. But it did get us tired enough to go straight to sleep. And that's what we did.

The next few days were intense with a lot of training. Lessi got a little distant with me probably resulting from our conversation. Which led to me then explaining to her that I do want all of that with her, but I just don't know when.

The day before our semi final match against Australia was tense. With a lot of media and film reviews and a lot a tactic plans on our board. We felt ready.

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Again apologies it definitely has been a while. Had a few major life events and mom not talking to me but oh well.
Another update in the next idk when I'm not giving fake promises