There are plenty of reasons why you might not sleep especially well before a final, but we dealt with a bit of a novel one during the Euros in the summer.
We’d been based at The Lensbury Resort for the tournament, but we moved to Myddelton Lodge, at Tottenham’s training ground, just before the final. In general, the change of venue was great, it freshened people up a bit. But it’s really fancy and the curtains in the rooms were all remote-controlled. For some reason, people’s remotes were just opening the curtains randomly — at two-o’clock, three-o’clock, four-o’clock in the morning!
It showed where that team was at in terms of our mental preparation that no one let it affect them. We weren’t thinking of being tired as an excuse if we didn’t play great, there was no question of that. It was just complete focus.
It was like that pretty much straight after we beat Sweden in the semi-final. Because we won convincingly, we didn’t have that nervy finish or big release, and it was probably the least we celebrated a win throughout the whole tournament. By then, we were so focused on winning and so close to our goal that attention switched to the final right away.
The mood did change a little bit in the camp that week, but not to the point where you could sense a tense atmosphere, or people seemed nervous.
If you were in the hotel with us the night before the final, you wouldn’t have known we had a massive game the next day. Everyone was really relaxed and also just enjoying the time together, because we’d spent the whole summer together and we knew it’d be one of our last days. I remember there was a campfire, and Lucy Bronze, Jill Scott, Leah Williamson and I just went out and sat round it for a cup of tea and a little chat as the night was coming to an end, enjoying those last few moments.
In the team meeting before the game, Sarina Wiegman was the most excited I’ve ever seen her, she was like a kid on Christmas Day.
Seeing her not looking nervous reverberated around the team, and we all realised that getting to play in that game, in front of a home crowd, might be a chance we never get again. So, take the moment, be really grateful and don’t let it pass you by.
That will, hopefully, be the mindset of France and Argentina’s players on Sunday. With all the upsets, this World Cup hasn’t always delivered the big match-ups people expected, but that’s been equally exciting, seeing teams like Morocco, who’ve been absolutely outstanding, surprise us all.
These, though, are definitely two of the best teams in the world and, personally, I’ll be rooting for Lionel Messi on the day.
He’s the world’s best player and we’re so lucky to have been able to watch him in our lifetime.
Lifting the World Cup would be the icing on the cake.
