ZURICH (AP) — The England team is “very optimistic” that captain Leah Williamson will be ready to face Italy in the semifinals of the Women’s European Championship on Tuesday.
Williamson had to come off during extra time of England’s dramatic quarterfinal victory over Sweden on Thursday and was seen leaving the stadium on crutches, with coach Sarina Wiegman saying it was too early to tell how bad the injury was.
Washington Spirit defender Esme Morgan filled in for Williamson during extra time when England was forced to reshuffle its defense and could make her first start if her captain fails to recover in time.
“We’re very optimistic that Leah will be available,” Morgan said Saturday. “She seemed in very high spirits this morning and I want what’s best for the team and that’s absolutely having our captain on the pitch for us.
“So I’m the same as every single game: be prepared to play if I’m needed, I’ll know the role and just be absolutely ready, train at high level over the next few days, but we’re very optimistic that Leah’ll be fine,” she added.
Morgan was brought on in the 70th minute against Sweden, for her major tournament debut, with England 2-0 down. The Lionesses then came roaring back, with two goals in as many minutes to force extra time.
England then won a chaotic — or “ridiculous” as Morgan termed it — penalty shootout, that saw only five of 14 spotkicks converted.
Bronze an ‘incredible leader’
Defender Lucy Bronze powerfully dispatched what turned out to be the winning penalty, as Sweden teenager Smilla Holmberg missed the last one.
Bronze, who scored the goal that got England back into the game, had played with strapping around her right leg during the match but ripped it off to take her spotkick.
“She is such an incredible leader in this team, we are all inspired by her mentality,” Morgan said. “She’s a freak really in that she just has so much passion, energy, fight and she infects everyone else with it.
“She’s just incredible how she was taping herself up and then whipped it off to take her penalty. She is hilarious but she’s just brilliant and we all love her and are very grateful that we get to play alongside her.”
Morgan admitted, however, that she thought England was going home a long time before the penalty shootout.
“There was a moment at the end of the first half where I thought ‘I’ve not packed anything,’” Morgan said with a laugh. “But I really had a sense throughout the game even when we were down that it wasn’t our time to go.
“And I think sometimes you just have a sense of calm which, you can’t explain why it’s there but just a belief really that we’re not going to let this happen and so I always had faith that we were going to be able to turn it round and thankfully that happened.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Daniella Matar, The Associated Press
