Impetus’ Cymru correspondent Martin Townley reports from Cymru’s media conference today featuring head coach Gemma Grainger and captain Sophie Ingle (21/9/23).
Above: Cymru head coach Gemma Grainger. Photo: FAW.
Cymru manager Gemma Grainger described being in the new Women’s Nations League A as exactly where she wants her team to be.
Speaking to the media ahead of Cymru’s opening Group Three game away to Iceland, Grainger expects a very different encounter to the last one between the sides. They met back in February at the Pinatar Cup which ended 0-0. Iceland would go on to win the Pinatar Cup with Cymru finishing in second.
“I think this game will be very different. Although the game in February was a certain style of play, since then, we’ve both played different opposition and different formations have been used.”
This match will see Cymru finally return to fully competitive football, their last was a World Cup play-loss to Switzerland in November 2022. Cymru captain Sophie Ingle is eager for a return to this type of encounter.
“I think you do slightly have a different mentality when it’s a friendly because you can work on things, there’s no pressure. But as soon as you come back into competitive games, it’s always exciting. This is why we play football; we want to play the best teams that we can.
Cymru will be the lowest-ranked team in their group, but Ingle says it’s not an issue. “We don’t really care about that. We just want to prove to ourselves mainly that we are good enough to compete against these teams and show that we are developing as a nation”.
Cymru have a fully fit squad going into Friday’s match with Grainger having a positive selection problem.
“It’s something that I really welcome as a manager, and hasn’t always been the case all of the time I’ve been here. But now I’m finding that I’m in positions where it’s a harder decision”.
Grainger then went on to praise the work her players have been doing at club level as the reason she is now finding selecting a team more difficult.
“That’s as a result of those players going away, and really dedicating their time to that to their club football, which is something that we wanted to really support and making good decisions around where to play, and those decisions are paying off at a national team level.
“We’ve seen it with the USA game in July, with the physical preparation that was required to compete at that level in the off-season, and how seriously our players are taking, playing both at Club and national team level.”
Most outside of Cymru will be expecting Grainger’s side to finish fourth in this group but the head coach told the media of her vision and expectations.
“Internally, they’re very much not our expectations, our expectations are to perform, and ultimately, we want to qualify for the European Championships. And being in League A gives us the best opportunity.
“There are 16 teams in League A which represents the same number of teams that would represent in a European Championships and a group stage. So, we use every single opportunity, we must make sure that our mindset and our mentality is focused on what we want to do.
“But at the same time, we want to enjoy the journey. So, success looks like us enjoying this journey and learning quickly. It’s competing, and it’s taking the next steps because as a team since the Switzerland game last year, apart from the US, we were unbeaten. So that gives us that belief that when we do play teams that not only, we can compete with them, but we can also win games. And that’s what we want to do.”
The match will take place at the Laugardalsvöllur in Reykjavík with a 19:00 kick. The other match in Group Three is Denmark v Germany again on Friday kick off at 17:00.
Follow Impetus on social media – we’re @ImpetusFootball on Threads, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. DON’T MISS our brand new TikTok platform @ImpetusFootball too!
impetusfootball.org 