England Supporters Club

Mark Sampson targets World Cup history for England

Posted by Team England at 10:26 on Monday 22 June 2015

Mark Sampson says his England Women’s side are ready to make World Cup history against Norway.

The Lionesses face Even Pellerud’s charges in the last-16 in Ottawa on Monday.

No England Women’s side has ever won a knockout match in three previous appearances at the tournament, in 1995, 2007 and 2011, and the head coach has asked his players to embrace that challenge.

He said: "It’s a huge opportunity. It’s a unique opportunity. It’s not often in your professional or personal life that you get the opportunity to make history, to be remembered forever, and this team have given themselves that opportunity.

"We really want to be those history makers. I know this team is incredibly determined to do that.

"We know the challenge we face. We are certainly not the favourites going into this game but the players are ready for that. We are confident that if we get everything right, if we are as close to perfect as we can possibly can be, we can be those history makers – and keep [on] making history."

England made it to the knockout stages after finishing second in Group F. They recovered from an opening-day defeat by France to edge Mexico and Colombia.

And Sampson is proud of the way his team has improved with every game.



He added: “We wanted to give ourselves the opportunity of knockout football and the players have achieved that admirably.

“We’ve used a lot of players, we’ve showed a different side to England every game and I think we’ve grown throughout the tournament which is really important.

“Clearly we wanted to get a more positive result in that first match, but we bounced back with two efficient performances, against a good Mexican team and a very talented Colombian team.

“You can sense that momentum, that sense of confidence flowing through the team, and we are in a good place to really attack these knockout rounds.”

First up in the knockouts is Norway, the Euro 2013 runners-up.

England drew 1-1 with the Norwegians in a La Manga friendly last January in Sampson’s first match as head coach.

But there must be a winner in Monday’s match – meaning the possibility of extra-time and penalties.



Sampson said: "It is knockout football and there are many different scenarios that attach themselves to knockout football.

"There is that extra pressure of knowing if you don’t get the result you want you’re going home. There’s no tomorrow in these matches. You’ve got to find a way to win. We are aware of that and the challenge we will face [over] 90 minutes.

"We’ve also got the extra-time scenario, potentially. And then clearly the possibility of penalties and I really feel we are prepared for that challenge as well. We are excited by all those moments.

"We are here to play knockout football, to test ourselves under the most intense pressure and the players are looking forward to the challenge."

He continued: "We feel we are in a good place to go and challenge an excellent Norwegian team. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us, without a shadow of a doubt, but these are the games you want to be involved in, these do-or-die, no-tomorrow games.

"The players are prepared for that. We’ve looked forward to this for a long time. We’ve given ourselves the opportunity to play these type of matches. Now we are going to embrace it and really go for it."