Champions: Rachel Daly
(Picture: The FA via Getty Images)Rachel Daly says leaving the Lionesses camp after winning the Euros was like coming out of the Big Brother house, with England players blown away by the tournament’s impact.
England enjoyed a historic summer by going all the way at the Euros to win their first ever major trophy in women’s football. The Lionesses beat Germany in the final on July 31, playing in front of a record crowd of 87,192 at Wembley and they also sold out stadiums throughout the tournament.
Since then England players have shot to fame and defender Daly has confessed the impact of their Euros win has taken the squad by surprise.
“During the Euros we were in kind of a bubble,” said Daly. “We didn’t really see a lot of the outside world and you got glimpses of that when you went to games and you were surrounded by fans and the media, but I don’t think we were fully aware of how much of an impact we had on the nation.
“So coming out it was a whirlwind. It was kind of like one minute we were all together living in a bubble and then the next you’re just in an open world. It was almost like you’d been on Big Brother or something or Love Island, you know, you’re in a world where you don’t see anything else.
“So to come out to the way the world was it was just crazy, a whirlwind, but an unbelievable feeling to see that we’d actually genuinely inspired the nation.”
England have now turned their attention to qualifying for next year’s World Cup and they can do so on Saturday by drawing with Austria. The Lionesses are aware they will now be the team to beat after becoming European champions, but they are relishing their favourites tag.
“England are a team that are feared. They have been for many years,” said Daly. “We’ve set in place who we are, and also now we are European champions and that is something you have got to look at with a great deal of respect, and pressure is probably on our back now.
“It’s a target on your back, but pressure is a privilege, and we have to see it as that. Of course there will be pressure on us but right now we’re focused on qualifying for the World Cup, obviously with the light of winning in the summer and we’re European champions of course.
“But our focus is on the World Cup qualification stage, but we know what we need to do and it’s right in front of us.”
