Georgia Stanway believes the World Cup is the perfect opportunity for the Lionesses to “showcase who we are as England”.
The Manchester City midfielder has had a season to remember for both club and country.
Having made her senior international bow, with a goal on debut against Austria in November, the 20-year-old ended the season as a domestic double-winner lifting both the FA Continental League Cup and the SSE Women’s FA Cup.
In the latter Final, Stanway scored as City beat West Ham United 3-0 at Wembley to showcase her burgeoning talent and put her in confident mood ahead of Saturday’s penultimate pre-World Cup friendly with Denmark in Walsall.
France 2019 will be Stanway’s first major senior tournament. She has represented her country at the U17s World Cup in 2016 and the U20s World Cup where last summer she top-scored as Mo Marley’s side finished third.
Stanway joined up with the rest of the Lionesses squad this week as preparations began for their first group game against Scotland in Nice on Sunday 9 June, with the youngster believing they are raring to go on the hunt for silverware.
She said: “The mood in the camp is good, we are just excited to get it started now. We’re looking forward to hitting the ground running and kicking off.”
Before flying out to France, Phil Neville’s side complete their preparations against New Zealand in Brighton.
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Tomorrow's game against Denmark is at a sold-out Banks’s Stadium and the team see it as an opportunity to attract even more fans.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase who we are as England. Denmark is going to be a tough challenge,” Stanway explained.
“As long as we show who we are we can hopefully get more fans watching. We need as many fans as possible going into the World Cup.
“The men [reaching the semi-finals at their World Cup in Russia last summer] boomed so hopefully we can follow on from that.”
The City star underlined how the World Cup is a vital opportunity to inspire even more girls to start playing football, hoping that the Lionesses can be at the forefront of that.
She said: “People are engaging in the women’s game. Hopefully us winning games shows who England are.
“If we can inspire one girl, that’s enough. If we can inspire 10,000, that’s even bigger. We’ll go out and do our best.”
England complete their Group B games against Argentina, in Le Havre on Friday 14 June, and Japan, back in Nice on Wednesday 19 June.
