Soccer

NI Women's captain Callaghan ready to take on challenge of England

Hold my jacket - Northern Ireland captain Marissa Callaghan (front) is ready to take on England at a packed Windsor Park tonight. <br />Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
Hold my jacket - Northern Ireland captain Marissa Callaghan (front) is ready to take on England at a packed Windsor Park tonight.
Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
Hold my jacket - Northern Ireland captain Marissa Callaghan (front) is ready to take on England at a packed Windsor Park tonight.
Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Women's World Cup qualifier, Uefa Group D: Northern Ireland v England, Windsor Park, 7.55pm tonight, live on BBC2, BBC2NI, and BBC iPlayer)

THEY may feel downbeat and beaten up after defeat in Austria but Northern Ireland women's captain Marissa Callaghan insists they will be upbeat when they face powerhouses England tonight.

The Cliftonville skipper admitted that the 3-1 loss in Wiener Neustadt on Friday night, which effectively ended the dream of a first ever World Cup qualification, was hard to recover from:

"It was heartbreaking, we had a long day travelling home, and we spoke about getting it out of our system… There's nothing we can do, the Austria game is gone…and we now have to look ahead and look forward to it. We'll be ready when we cross the line."

Austria will surely finish this group with at least 22 points, with home wins over Latvia and North Macedonia, and they might even gain more as they also host England, having only lost 1-0 in Sunderland last November.

The most NI can reach now is 22, and realistically it's 19 – they will lose to England.

The only real questions about tonight are 'By how much?' and 'In what manner?'

Manager Kenny Shiels has expanded and strengthened his squad superbly, giving himself a few headaches ahead of selection for the Euros.

So does he go for damage limitation or experimentation?

Callaghan answered that one, insisting the hosts won't be ultra-defensive: "We're not a team that goes out and plays a low block, we try to score goals, it's the way we've been since Kenny's come in.

"England are obviously a great team, they're top of the table, and it's going to be a tough night for us, but we'll come out, play our style, and hopefully everyone will give the best account of themselves - and maybe we'll get a result, who knows?"

Sarina Wiegman's side won the reverse fixture 4-0 at Wembley but Callaghan expressed confidence that NI can do better tonight, ahead of meeting England again when the latter host the delayed Euros this July:

"We have fantastic players in our squad: game changers and goal-scorers. Who knows what can happen?

"But the big thing is it's going to be great preparation for going forward and we have a lot to look forward to.

"We took them on at Wembley, so why not take them on at Windsor? We know England are a fantastic side but so are we.

"We go out with a positive attitude, we go out to win games, score goals, defend for our lives, we're taking this occasion on. I think it's fantastic for the whole country, for the young players, families, friends. Our families are so proud of us and we're so proud of ourselves."

Even with the majority of the 16,000 crowd screaming them on, wanting them to do well, Callaghan is adamant that she and her side won't feel nerves, or pressure as role models:

"No, there's a lot of us have been here a long time and when we started there were hardly any women playing football, let alone us having role models. We take a lot of pride that we are helping these young girls aspire to be who they want to be.

"Young girls need to believe in themselves. We never thought we'd be here, qualifying for a major tournament, but we did, our dreams have come true…for us it's about making these young girls believe that anything's possible…

"We need to enjoy this occasion, we need to give it our all - one thing you don't want to do is a player is come off and feel that you haven't given your all.

"These are the games you dream about," said the 36-year-old midfielder. "Every player is looking forward to it and will give it their all."