Stanway: "We're grateful to still be here - now the focus is on Italy"

I don’t think I actually have any words for the Sweden game.

We could have been going home in the 90 minutes, at any moment during extra time, so it was crazy. It’ll take a very long time to process the game. We were so shocked because it gets to a stage, deep down, where you think we’re not going to able to overcome this.

I think the fact we were so calm really helped us, the subs were made, and we did things different tactically. The goals came so quickly I was suddenly thinking we were going to win in normal time.

At the end, I turned around and people were jumping up and down, and then I turned the other way and people were crying. We had a few who were struggling with their bodies so couldn’t move.

It was more stressful on the side, for sure. I’d hate to be the family because the experience on watching the penalties was horrific.

We’ve got a team full of experience. Lots of us are young but we have played a lot of football. As a collective, we’ve won a lot of trophies. We’ve got leagues, we’ve got cups, we’ve got Champions League medals, and if you put it all together it creates a special team that is full of different experiences and journeys.

Everybody’s got here in different ways and that’s how you end up creating such a good bond. We now prepare for Italy and I don’t think there’s anything we’ve not faced in the last four games that we could face now, so it’s been good to get all of those experiences recently.

The young players are doing unbelievably. We’ve seen the impact Michelle Agyemang can have, what she does on a daily basis in training and obviously on the pitch is unbelievable. She comes on and brings us something different.

She’s a powerhouse, she can hold the ball up, she can get her shots off and that was what we needed because we knew Sweden are physical. I remember as a young player wanting to feel super comfortable and that’s how we want the younger ones to feel now.

Now we’re spending some time back at basecamp. The hotel is beautiful, it’s been so nice in the afternoons to just chill. After about day four or five Sarina came up to me because I’d been sitting on the sofa a few too many times. She couldn’t decide whether I was lazy or chilling.

We enjoy watching the other games and there are always card games going on. 

A big step for me was when I moved to Bayern Munich and I had to get used to living by myself. There are moments when I just love my own company and Munich taught me that. If you can be happy with who you are, you express yourself.

I find that with my tattoos. I’m always trying to create new designs, for me and other people, and maybe that’s something I can look into post-career. I like my photography as well. There’s some cool art in the hotel so I’ve been very entertained.

I’m super grateful to be here. Going through the injury I’ve had was tough and then the France game, where I didn’t have a good performance.

I wanted to make sure against the Netherlands I put my foot on the pedal and hit the ground running. I’ve been really proud of the last three performances and it’s obviously been three good results as well.

Now we’ll be doing everything we can to prepare for Italy.