– and it feels really good
names, and he just made them laugh. So, my job was easy.”
In the video messages announcing the squad for this World Cup, Beckham confirmed the place of Nikita Parris and the forward spoke about what he had said before the Norway game.
“He said just enjoy the moment. He said we were ready and we knew we were ready. He gave us some unbelievable confidence,” she revealed. “He told us we inspire his little girl and that’s special. We like to inspire Harper, but also the many girls across the country who are watching football for the first time. I want to say to them, ‘Keep working hard and one day you’ll be making the nation proud like we are’.”
That was shown with events up and down the country, including Glastonbury, where thousands of festival-goers gathered for a screening of the match at the West Holts Stage – after Georgia Stanway had told the organisers she had a “favour to ask”, to allow her brother, attending the festival, to watch it.
“Oh wow. That’s special,” Parris said of the jubilant scenes. “That shows how far the women’s game has come. But not just England, there have been great crowds out here from every country. We want to put on a show and hope we can.”
England are. In reaching the semi-finals they have matched the achievement in Canada four years ago, which was the minimum goal. “I think we’re getting to that legacy moment,” Neville said.
“We’re not getting carried away, we’ve lost two semi-finals [including Euro 2017] – but we’re getting to that point now where we are inspiring, where people are jumping on board, where it just feels really good. Something is happening, we can’t hide away from that.”