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![]() We went into the game with Belgium looking for three points and, with Sweden, you have to be realistic as they are one of the world's best, but we had a positive attitude and wanted to show what we could do. The Belgium game was every bit as thrilling as the 3-2 scoreline suggests. In the second half we played some of the best football I have ever seen us play, better than the Czech Republic game because we kept the ball and were in control and scored two good and well deserved goals - granted, one of them was a penalty but the build up play was good. We knew they were going to come at us and push forward in the second half and if we'd have held that 20-25 minute rush we would have been fine but we didn't, we conceded two sloppy goals but we came back from that and were back in control for the last fifteen minutes and got a deserved win. After what happened in the home game, when Belgium scored in the last minute, it was good to get the perfect revenge. We remembered the way they celebrated after the game that day and we certainly gave it back! I think in all honesty, even Sweden would admit they were fortunate to win 4-0 on Wednesday night. We held them until the 69th minute, with the opportunity to have scored some goals ourselves, so from our point of view that's fine, but in the last fifteen minutes the heavy pitch took it out of us. We would have been happy with 4-0 not so long ago but we were all gutted as the girls worked very hard. We kept the ball well again and if you do that against the world's best, you can't fear anybody. There were bound to times that as a defensive unit we would have to be compact and keep things tight and they struggled to break through us, so we can take plenty of positives from this game. I don't think anyone watching could have believed it was a 4-0 game. The weather conditions were absolutely horrendous and it could have worked in our favour as Sweden wouldn't have fancied playing in it. But it affected us as well as it was so heavy and you had to work extra hard to get anywhere, although we got on with it and carried on playing. It didn't help that three players had to go off, we lost Helen Lander and Michelle Green to impact injuries and my own injury was aggravated by the pitch as it was too heavy. I have been suffering with a hip injury but thought that I could play through it but couldn't make the 90 minutes, although had the pitch not been so bad I think I would have been alright. I am gutted that I came off but had to do so, but the subs came on and did a fabulous job. The Sweden match was our last of the season and, apart from the blip in Azerbaijan, we have done well overall. Other countries are starting to realise that games against Wales are no longer a pushover - after all we have just played the team ranked fourth in the world and they will know that they have been in a game. We have beaten the second and third seeds in our group and given the top seeds a hell of a game and that is down to the girls and the management and all of the hard work they have put in. We haven't been very lucky with the draws in the past so hopefully in the future we can avoid the really big guns and push on from here. There are still two games to go for now though and if we can beat Azerbaijan we can still finish third, with wins against the three other teams apart from Sweden in our group which would be really good for us.
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