England 'full of confidence' ahead of semi-final against the Netherlands, insists captain Steph Houghton
The 29-year-old said the England camp were 'buzzing' to 'get going' as they look to make history in the Women's Championship on Thursday night
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Your support makes all the difference.England are “full of confidence” ahead of Thursday’s Euro 2017 semi-final against the Netherlands, captain Steph Houghton has said.
The two teams meet in the last four of the Women’s Championship for the first time since 2009 when the Lionesses beat their Dutch rivals in extra-time to reach the final of the tournament.
Mark Sampson’s side enjoy a perfect record in this year’s finals, having won all four of their fixtures on the road to the semi-finals, and Houghton is adamant that her team-mates are ready to repeat history when they meet the hosts in Utrecht.
Speaking after the final training session ahead of Thursday’s game, the 29-year-old said the England camp were “buzzing” to “get going”.
"If you watch our session you will see that everyone is buzzing,” she said. “We just can't wait to get going. We are full of confidence ahead of the game."
She added: "As you can see from the training session we're lively, everybody is having a little bit of fun and it makes it that little bit easier when everybody is enjoying themselves, so for us it's business as usual and hopefully we will start off on the front foot come tomorrow."
Houghton also alluded to England’s new-found mental strength which she believes will be enough to hand her side the advantage.
"It's important we use our experiences from previous tournaments. I think we are so much better at managing our game in the last few minutes when we need to find a win.
"We are good at sorting out pressure and have kept three clean sheets which is massive.
"As well as Jodie's [Taylor] goals it's all important the defence is keeping clean sheets - certainly that will be our aim tomorrow."
England have been forced to make two changes for Thursday’s semi-final. Jill Scott is suspended after picking up a booking in the quarter-final against France while the injured Karen Bardsley will be replaced in goal by veteran Siobhan Chamberlain.
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