2 Oct 2008
VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Rachel Brown post-Spain

After reaching a third successive major tournament, Rachel Brown says that England have a chance of winning Euro 2009

Spain

2-2

England

Boquette 9, Bermudez 42

Carney 55, K Smith 77


UEFA 2009 European Women's Championship Qualifier
7.30pm, Thursday 2 October 2008
Ruta de la Plata, Zamora, Spain

Rachel Brown revealed that the experience of coming through the intense evening in Rennes two years ago to qualify for the World Cup was a major factor as they came from two down to draw level with Spain and reach Euro 2009.

It was a remarkably similar scenario in 2006 when a draw would put England on course for China, but defeat would have put France through and the Three Lions out at the final hurdle.

Despite trailing to two first-half goals from their Spanish hosts, England came roaring out after the break and levelled the scores through Karen Carney and Kelly Smith.

Brown told TheFA.com: "We were lucky enough to do something similar a couple of years ago in qualifying for the World Cup and it mean't so much to us to do this tonight. It's absolutely fantastic.

"It feels like a 2-2 win, even though it is a draw it has the same feelings as a win tonight.

"Drawing on the experiences we had from the France game two years ago, being in a really high-pressure situation like that, we knew that we could do it.

"I think that having that experience in the bank is very important, and we have a lot of the players who were involved that night here again.

"Going into half-time 2-0 down, we knew it wasn't all over. We came back out and showed our fighting spirit and we deserved to get a draw at least."

Brown now believes that having qualified for their third major tournament in a row, England can push themselves to try and win the European Championship in Finland next August.

"The Euros four years ago in England were a disappointment for the players and everyone involved," Brown explained. "It was an amazing atmosphere and we should have made more of it.

"On the back of that we turned it around and put in some great performances to get to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and we have some momentum.

"We need to be firing on all cylinders next summer, because we really believe that if we can play as well as we have done in the past then we can push to actually try and win something."

Teams

Spain
1 Ainhoa Tirapu, 3 Sonia Vesga, 4 Melisa Nicolau, 7 Adriana Martin, 8 Laura Del Rio, 9 Veronica Boquete, 10 Vanesa Gimbert (c), 12 Silvia Meseguer (16 Ma Jose Perez 87), 14 Sonia Bermudez (11 Sandra Vilanova 71), 15 Marta Torrejon, 18 Erika Vazquez (17 Ana Romero 58)

Substitutes
13 Ma Jose Pons, 2 Alexandra Lopez, 5 Ruth Garcia, 6 Ma Paz Vilas

England
1 Rachel Brown, 2 Alex Scott, 3 Casey Stoney, 4 Jill Scott, 5 Lindsay Johnson, 6 Anita Asante, 7 Karen Carney, 8 Fara Williams, 9 Eniola Aluko (16 Emily Westwood 46), 10 Kelly Smith (c), 11 Rachel Yankey (15 Sue Smith 82)

Substitutes
12 Lianne Sanderson, 13 Siobhan Chamberlain, 14 Rachel Unitt, 17 Laura Bassett, 18 Faye White

Referee
Jenny Palmqvist (Sweden)

Assistant Referees
Annica Johansson, Anna Nystrom (Sweden)