Despite missing a penalty in the Continental League Cup final on Saturday, Leah Williamson delivered an incredible defensive performance.
The England international was at her best alongside Louise Quinn over 120 minutes, helping the side keep a clean sheet, before unfortunately slipping to a 4-2 on penalties.
We spoke to Williamson after the final whistle - and this is what she said:
on her thoughts at the final whistle…
It’s hard to take going that far with no reward. Maybe that was all we deserved from the game in the end, a shot at penalties. They obviously hit the woodwork twice and that brings you back down to earth, but obviously nobody wants to be the person that misses and today that was me, so my initial thoughts are that I’m upset because I don’t miss. That’s not the person I am. You go that far and you play so hard, you run so far, your legs hurt and everything hurts and then suddenly you can’t pass the ball into the back of the net from 12 yards, so I’m upset about that. Ultimately, however, I think that’s the most resilient I’ve ever seen us as a team. We worked so hard for eachother and we really stuck together when times were tough. It was a tough game.
on being proud of the team’s effort…
One hundred per cent, the performance had to be perfect. That means perfect in front of goal, perfect in defence and perfect on the ball. We created some good chances and even in the second half every time we were brave and played our football, we created something. Unfortunately for us that didn’t last long, though, so it was more of a defensive performance today. We did that for 120 minutes and that can be really hard to maintain emotionally. It’s just rubbish that we failed at the easiest part, rolling the ball into the net from 12 yards out.
on Montemurro’s message in the dressing room…
As you can imagine, he was saying that that’s that and it’s gone now, so we need to shift our focus elsewhere now. That’s why we wanted to win it, because it’s one day where you turn up and you either leave with the trophy or you don’t. Unfortunately they’ve taken it instead of us, but now we have a league to win. Let’s not beat around the bush, that’s what we’re here to do. We don’t have any other distractions, we can only focus on the league now, so hopefully we can keep putting in those top performances and keep picking up those wins. We’re in a great position so it would be a shame to let that slip.
on only having to focus on six WSL fixtures now…
That’s a great way of putting it. We have six games now where we have to turn up and have the game of our lives and take home the three points every time.
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