Olivia's pov
Today I was wearing the armband for the lionesses for the third time.
We had travelled to Middlesbrough to play against Canada.
We knew it was going to be a hard match, but everyone was in positive spirits.
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The lineups had been confirmed and me and less were both starting up front along with Hempo.
In midfield, we had Keira, Tooney, and lee, then in defence we had Demi, Alex, Millie and Rach, and of course Mary in goal.
It was a good line up that Sarina had put together and I was so excited to play with lessi.
"You Ready, cap?" Lessi asks as she wraps her arms around me from behind.
"I'm ready." I state. "How does it feel? Your first start for the lionesses. I'm so proud of you, baby."
"Buzzing. It feels amazing. And it feels even more amazing knowing that we've got one of the best captains." Less sends soft kisses down my neck.
"Come on, lovers. They've called us to the tunnel. You can finish whatever this is later." Mary teases us and we make our way to the tunnel.
On the way out, less helped me out on the captain armband and I grabbed the pennant.
I made my way to the front of the line in front of Mary and Leah.
Both of them rubbed my shoulders to calm me down.
"You've got this, cap." Leah whispers, encouragingly.
"Thanks, lee." I give her a grateful hug and we walk out of the tunnel.
We walk our first, passing the trophy, and the Canadian players follow us out.
The Canadian anthem plays first and then ours plays.
We swap pennants and take our jackets off before heading out to take our positions.
I walk over to less and kiss her gently and quickly before we get into our positions.
The whistle blows and we take the knee before kick off.
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Nothing much happened in the first twenty minutes of the game but in the 20', less gets fouled by Lawrence and I immediately run over.
The ref blew her whistle straight away, indicating to a free kick.
"You okay, Baby?" I ask as I put my hand on her back.
"Yeah, I'm alright, livvy."
"Keep doing what you're doing, lessi. You're doing fantastic." I rub my hand on her back and squeeze her shoulder as we head to the box so Alex can deliver the free kick. Unfortunately, it doesn't bring a goal but instead, a corner.
The corner gets taken, but the goalkeeper punches it out, making it another corner.
It gets crossed in and the Canadian goalkeeper punches it away again but not far enough as it lands near me in the air and I volley it in.
I wasn't expecting it to go in as I thought I had skied it but somehow it did.
I run to my nearest teammate who is Alex and she side hugs me. Within seconds, someone had jumped on my back and kissed my neck. Recognising the lips straight away, I kissed less' cheek. Everyone else then celebrated with me before we returned to our positions.
"Best captain England will see." Leah says to me as she walks past to the other side of the pitch.
In the 30' minute, Rach goes down with an injury caused by a dodgy tackle.
I instantly run over to see if Rachel is okay, which she was. Within a minute, Rach was up and ready to go again.
Thirty seconds later, I see less pull Jessie Flemming's shirt, which resulted in a free kick to them.
I smirk at her and shake my head in a joking matter.
The 34', less shoots from and awkward angle but gets blocked by a defender. Ella then shoots but again, it's blocked.
The first half ends and it's still 1-0 to us.
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During half time, it was decided that Ella was coming of and G was coming on.
The second half begins and within a minute, I get tackled by Lawrence with her knee being placed in the back of my thigh.
I go down holding my thigh by get up after a couple of seconds just massaging my hamstring gently.
I take the free kick but just two minutes later, Lawrence pushes me over and steps on my foot when I've got the ball, thank god the ref gave her a yellow card otherwise she would have gotten a piece of my mind.
In the 55', our lead in the score line equalised as Janine Beckie scored from distance.
Mary was close to getting it but she wasn't high enough.
Ten minutes later, four changes are made:
Nikita Parris on for Leah Williamson
Jess Carter on for Alex Greenwood
Lucy bronze on for Rachel Daly
Beth mead on for Lauren hemp
Less then gets subbed off in the 75' and Ellen comes on.
I kiss less' cheek as she walks over to the bench.
"You played so well, lessi. Well done, baby."
We had loads of chances over the last 15 minutes, however, none of them come to any goals.
During extra time, Nikita gets pushed in ten penalty box but according to the ref it wasn't a penalty.
I run to the ref, shouting at her that it was a penalty or at least a yellow card.
Instead of allowing one, she gives me a warning that I'd be getting a yellow if I didn't stop.
Eventually, The final whistle blows and the match finishes 1-1.
We shake hands with the Canadian players and also tell my team how well they played.
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So far, each team has one point as Germany and Spain has also drew 1-1.
After the match, we had a team discussion and made our way back to the hotel.
We were travelling down to Norwich tomorrow.
On the 20th, we were playing Spain in Norwich.
I was excited for that match, but also dreading it.
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Me and less went straight to our room when we got to the hotel.
We had a quick shower together before making our way to bed.
We cuddled and shared a few sweet kisses before we fell asleep.