Alex Greenwood says Chelsea centre-backs Jess Carter and Millie Bright can give England the inside track on Denmark captain Pernille Harder.
Bright and Carter played with Harder for three years at Chelsea, with the striker leaving earlier this summer to join Bayern Munich.
They will have a reunion on Friday, though, when the Lionesses face Denmark in their second game of the Women’s World Cup.
Both sides won their opening matches in Group D and the winners in Sydney can all-but guarantee finishing top. And Greenwood has revealed how England are tapping into Bright and Carter’s knowledge of Harder to work out a plan on stopping her.
“They trained with her day in and day out over the last however many years,” she said.
“They will give the others some tips. I suppose it does help. Millie played up against her in training and so did Jess, so I’m sure they know how to stop her and will share that information with us.
“Pernille herself, what she has achieved in the game is outstanding. The runs into the box she makes and how tidy she is on the ball.
“For a player that’s quite slight, her hold-up play is brilliant. She scores a lot of goals – all types of goals – and has a great strike on her.
“I can give her more compliments but I won’t. She’s a top player and that’s why she’s won the amount of trophies she has.
“I’m very much aware of her from playing against her with Chelsea and the problems she causes, but likewise the other [Denmark] players.
“They have got some really good individuals all over the pitch. She’s classed as their main threat and rightly so. For us it’s about nullifying their threats, her being one of them, and we’ll have a game-plan to deal with that.”
