‘Proper England’ – Bright hails England’s fight and desire in victory over Spain | OneFootball

Defender Millie Bright labelled England’s performance in their 1-0 victory over Spain as ‘Proper England’.

The Lionesses defeated the world champions in a UEFA Women’s Nations League fixture at Wembley last night. Jess Park netted the game’s only goal in the first half.

When speaking to the media after the match, defender Bright hailed the team’s heroic performance, labelling it ‘Proper England’.

“It feels really good,” Bright said. “After the last game, we have been working really hard to build those connections. We wanted to be even more connected and to be honest, we just spoke about being ‘Proper England’ tonight; to have that fight and desire to defend for each other, work hard for each other and be hard to beat.

“I think it’s so important in football to be hard to beat first and foremost and then to get the win and the clean sheet; you’ve see the performance from everyone, it was outstanding.”

England could only battle out a 1-1 draw with Portugal in their first match but Bright said that the team remained level-headed for their second test against Spain.

She said “When you’re in the game, you keep level-headed. Yes, we dropped points in the last game but you can’t let that derail you too much because there are more games to play. Ultimately, it’s part of football that you have good days and bad days.

“We are on this new journey and we are building connections, [new] players are coming into the team and squad. We are experiencing a lot of firsts to be honest with different personalities, different characters.

“We are trying to really gel together and tonight, we’ve shown huge improvements from the last game. We’ve taken a huge step forward and now, we want to create even more chances and score even more goals.”

England are building towards this summer’s UEFA Women’s EURO and Bright believes that victory over Spain can be a big marker in the team’s development.

She said “It’s massive. Whichever tournament you play in, you’ve got to be hard to beat, you’ve got to have that defensive mindset to put your body on the line for 90 minutes-plus. We showed that tonight and it’s now about adding that in-possession stuff; creating more chances and scoring more goals.

“Ultimately, I thought it was a fantastic performance and I’m really proud of the group for taking that next step on the challenge that we are facing.”

England return to UEFA Women’s Nations League action in April when they face Belgium in back-to-back home and away fixtures.