Alessia Russo speaks after England's win in France
Published 04 June 2024 3 min read
England Women's Senior Team
The Lionesses striker discusses her own and the team's performance as England earn big result in France
MATCH REPORT: FRANCE v ENGLAND
Alessia Russo believes England can take confidence and momentum into their remaining EURO 2025 qualifiers, after their victory over France on Tuesday evening.
The Arsenal striker led the line for England with aplomb throughout, and played a key role in helping to set up Georgia Stanway’s opener before adding a second goal for the Lionesses before the break.
And after a strong first-half display, England had to show their resolve after the break as the hosts hit back with a late penalty to pile the pressure on Sarina Wiegman’s team.
“I think we got our standards back to where we wanted them,” said Russo after the game.
“There were still parts we will work on for sure, but this is the kind of performance we want to keep going forward with now.
“We know the level is higher than ever and we know to do anything at the EUROs, to even qualify is going to be harder than ever so we are proud.
“We just spoke as team then, we know that our standards have to be higher, we have probably let them slip a bit in these past few qualifiers but we know the talent we have. We know the potential we have as a group and we saw a lot more of it tonight.
“We will have a little bit of a rest and then be back in July for another massive camp.”
In terms of her own personal performance, Russo wouldn’t be drawn on whether it was her best game for England, but she did reveal she’s still working hard on the traditional values of a ‘number nine’
“I’m just trying to work hard, strikers get counted on their goals and obviously that is massively important to me and I always want to keep working on that,” she said.
“But I am learning that there are so much more to the nine. Obviously, that’s [goals] the most important thing, but there are loads of things that go around it and I am just trying to work on my game each day and hopefully see it come to life.
“I think when you are in the moment you are so focused on the game, but I was pleased I just tried to do what I could because France are a tough side.
“I’m up against some of the best centre-backs in the world, so I was just trying to hold up and disrupt their play out of possession
“It’s obviously nice to get on the scoresheet as well and we created a lot of better chances than we did last time we played them.”
