England’s Mark Sampson proud of Jodie Taylor’s ‘obsession with scoring goals’ | Football

England’s Mark Sampson proud of Jodie Taylor’s ‘obsession with scoring goals’ | Football

Mark Sampson paid tribute to Jodie Taylor after Euro 2017’s leading scorer propelled England into Thursday’s semi-final against Holland.

“This is not luck, this is not just down to ability, Jodie has an obsession with scoring goals and we are so, so proud of her,” the Lionesses coach said. “She puts so much work in for the team, too, we are very fortunate to have her.”

Sampson is now the first England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey to reach two consecutive semi-finals at major tournaments and, in doing so, it involved a first victory over France since 1974. “We are proud to create history but now we want to go two steps further,” said the 34-year-old Welshman, who acknowledged it had been an extremely hard-fought win.

“We were at our very best tonight because we had to play at their level,” he said. “France are an outstanding team and we had to dig so deep tonight. I’m incredibly proud, that was a real team effort. But we saw the winning mentality that we saw every single day. There was no way we were going to roll over tonight. It was a hard game, emotionally, physically, tactically, we feel like we’ve run into an absolute steam train. We’re very, very proud, it’s a special night for sure.”

Sampson appreciates just how significant victory was in the context of the bigger picture involving the growth of the women’s game in England. “We’re exciting the English public and we’re very proud of that,” he said. “It’s a very long time since the public felt a genuine sense of belief, and not just hope, that an England team could win a major championship and the players have earned the right to put themselves in that bracket.”

After his bullish pre-match comments as he engaged in potentially high-risk mind games with Olivier Echouafni, his France counterpart, Sampson cut a much more humble figure, suitably wary of complacency. “There’s four outstanding teams left in this tournament, we know that,” he said on a night when Austria beat Spain on penalties to set up a semi-final against Denmark, surprise conquerors of the holders, Germany. “It’s going to be a huge game for us on Thursday night against the hosts, who are full of confidence. It’s going to be a great test for us.

“This tournament has shown that the favourites haven’t got on too well, so we’ll be sure to get ourselves ready for this game. But it’s not often England teams win quarter-finals and this group have now got two under their belt in the space of just two years [they finished third in the 2015 World Cup in Canada]. Now we have to make that next step and get into our first final together.”

He is disappointed that Jill Scott, one of his key midfielders, will miss the semi-final against Holland after collecting a second yellow card of the tournament. “The only sad thing is Jill Scott’s suspension,” he said. “Jill will be devastated. Unfortunately she made a bad decision she probably shouldn’t have made but she doesn’t deserve this.”

All that remained was for Sampson to pay tribute to his family for their support while he directed “so much emotional energy” to trying to win the tournament. “I love them so much,” he said.

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