Esme Morgan 'proud' of performance

Esme Morgan expressed her pride at England’s defensive display after the Lionesses beat Spain 1-0 at Wembley in 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifying.

Centre-back Morgan was handed a start by manager Sarina Wiegman, lining up alongside Lotte Wubben-Moy as England dug deep to preserve a clean sheet.

“The goal is a good start and then I'm just proud of the concentration and the organisation that we had,” explained Morgan.

“I feel like, as a team, from back to front we communicated really well, worked really hard out of possession and defended resolutely.

“And I feel like those games, although they're not always the prettiest, as a defender, they're really satisfying to know that you've ground it out and battled and managed to keep a clean sheet against one of the best teams in the world.”

Morgan and her teammates were happy for England’s stand-in skipper Keira Walsh – whom they celebrated in the post-match huddle – after the midfielder reached 100 caps this evening.

“We were all cheering for Keira, because, obviously, she's got 100 caps,” explained Morgan.

“We were just saying that we had our opportunities at the start of the second half. It wasn't just defending.

“In future, we can be more clinical and maybe make the game more comfortable, but we defended really well and should be really proud of that. We were organised, we executed the game plan perfectly.

“It was just a message of being proud. There's obviously a lot to build on and then refocusing on the big game against Iceland this week.”

The Washington Spirit defender also gave an insight into how the Lionesses gear up for the big occasions.

“I think we prepare for teams in the same way, whether we've played them more or less frequently,” noted Morgan.

“We look at them, having some patterns in possession, out of possession, and then make the game plan.

“But with the game plan, we’ll work on it on the training pitch. We wanted to press them high in their half and then when they manage to progress the ball, be really, really difficult to beat.

“We'd like to have more of the ball and have a little more control in possession so that's something we'll probably work to progress and improve on when we play them in June.

“But I'm really proud of how we executed out of possession especially.”

England are back in action on Saturday 18 April (5.30pm BST kick-off) when they travel to Reykjavík to face Iceland in the 500th fixture in the Lionesses' history.