Susi revels in Lions' belief
Thursday, 22 September, 2011
Defender says England have taken confidence from record FIFA ranking.
Tickets are priced £5 for adults and £2.50 for concessions (U7s go free)
Ticket hotline 0871 876 1993
For fans not able to get to Swindon, FATV will stream the game live and free of charge here on TheFA.com
Dunia Susi says England have taken a great deal of confidence from their climb to an all-time high of sixth in the official FIFA world rankings.
Recent victories over USA, Sweden and Japan saw Hope Powell’s side jump four places from tenth and now they are attempting to qualify for a major Finals, Euro 2013, for the fifth time in succession.
“[The FIFA ranking] has given us more belief that we are a good team and that we can compete with the top nations,” said Susi. “But we need to keep demanding more of ourselves and keep competing at the top level.
“Although we have beaten the top three nations at the World Cup we can’t dwell on those victories too much. They have given us a lot of confidence but we have got the Euros to think about now.”
England’s European Championship qualifying campaign began on Saturday in Belgrade. A Rachel Yankey strike and a Violeta Slovic own goal had given the Three Lions a two goal advantage at half-time. But Danka Podovac’s free-kick halved the deficit with just over half an hour to play and Vesna Smiljkovic equalised for Serbia in the fourth minute of added time.
England returned home on Sunday largely frustrated with letting the lead slip, but Susi has urged her team-mates to bounce back against Slovenia, their first match on home soil since May.
“We are disappointed with the draw because we should have taken more out of the game,” was the defender’s summary of Saturday’s game. “But it’s a learning curve and we will take the positives out of it and move on.
“Regardless of the result against Serbia we would always have looked for the win on Thursday anyway. At this moment in time with our highest-ever ranking every team is going to look to beat us and we have to go into every single game looking for the win.”
Tickets for Thursday’s game are priced £5 for adults and £2.50 for concessions, with U7s going free. Call the ticket hotline on 0871 876 1993