WE’LL GIVE OUR ALL TO UPSET GERMANY

I PLAYED one of my first competitive games for England against Germany when Hope Powell named Carly Telford and me in the 2007 World Cup squad. My first thought was, ‘I’m going to China with my best mate for a bit of a jolly’. I was wrong. I came on as a substitute in the first match against Japan and was then told I’d be starting our second group game. I had about six senior caps to my name and I had just been told I was starting a World Cup game against Germany. You can imagine how I was feeling! The game ended 0-0 and was considered a massive result for

us at that time. When I look back on it now, throwing me into that game was the best thing Powell could have done. It made me realise how much work you have to put in to be able to play against the likes of Birgit Prinz and Kerstin Garefrekes.

I’ve been on the wrong side of quite a few defeats by Germany, so it makes pipping them to the bronze medal at the 2015 World Cup that little bit sweeter. I also remember losing 6-2 in the Euro 2009 final — that’s probably when they had their best team. Germany had that group of players for so many years that you could predict their starting line-up. You knew Garefrekes was going to be playing on the right-wing and was going to be crossing it in for Prinz — and you knew it was going to be a goal. They were a great team but they took a massive stumble

when those players all left the international scene around the same time. I think German coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s team are probably going through a transition period. Germany have been a very good team in the past, but are they as good today as the side that beat us in 2009? Probably not. In terms of history — England have lost 20 out of the 25 meetings with Germany — we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. But I know that we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure they don’t beat us in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley.