Steph Catley knows what kind of impact hosting the Women’s Euros had in England. She felt it first hand, walking around the streets of London bathed in the afterglow of the Lionesses’ triumph. The Matildas defender saw the effect it had on the lives of Arsenal teammates such as Beth Mead and Leah Williamson. “They’re superheroes on another level to the young girls over here,” Catley says. “They can’t walk down the street without being recognised”.
Most of all, she has lived it, playing for Arsenal in an extra-time defeat to Wolfsburg in the Champions League semi-final in front of 60,063 fans at Emirates Stadium – 58,657 more than the last time the Gunners hosted a European semi and an attendance that set a new record for women’s club football in the UK.
