The Arnold Clark Cup starts on Thursday and will see England, Germany, Spain and Canada face-off for the silverware.
Ahead of the competition, England and Manchester United attacker Ella Toone answered questions from the press at an England media day in which FAWSL Full-Time were in attendance.
The quality of the opposition is a significant step-up from recent England matches with the Lionesses having beaten Latvia 20-0 last time out, a game in which Toone got her name on the scoresheet. The forward has six goals in eight appearances for England and Toone believes that she has really improved in the short time that she’s worked with head coach Sarina Wiegman.
“She’s really helped me settle in and find my feet in the team,” Toone said. “I think she’s been great to work under and long may that continue.”
England are now faced with the daunting task of playing three top 10 teams over the space of seven days but Toone is relishing the opportunity.
She said “That only excites us and excites me. We know they’re going to be difficult but that’s what we want.
“I’ve not played an awful lot of international football but the games that I have, we’ve won quite comfortably. These [games] are going to be really tough for everyone involved and for me especially, they’re going to make me test myself against better teams and better opposition.”
Looking ahead to Thursday’s game against Canada, Toone talked up England’s opponents. She referenced their Olympic Games victory last summer.
“We know they’re a great team, they’ve got loads of class players,” she said. “We’ll look at it as a team, what areas we need to exploit. We’ll work hard on our game as well and hopefully, we can pick up three points.”
Following the Canada game, England will play Spain on Sunday. This will see Toone potentially face-off against her Manchester United teammate Ona Batlle.
Toone paid tribute to Batlle by saying “She’s an unbelievable player, she’s a great player on and off the ball.
“The way they [Spain] move the ball and their style of play is great to watch. We know that it’s going to be a tough game and they are a tough opposition but our thoughts are firstly on Canada.”
England’s three games will be played in Middlesbrough, Norwich and Wolverhampton and Toone stated that this is huge in drumming up support heading into the summer.
She said “The main thing for us is making the nation proud and going to different places is going to attract a lot more fans into stadiums.”
When asked by FAWSL Full-Time if there were any cities or stadiums in England which she wanted to play in, Toone responded “There’s loads of places that I want to go to. I think it’s really exciting for us that we get to play at loads of different stadiums when we come away with England. Obviously, my favourite’s Old Trafford, that’s just home for me and that’s just where I love. That would be amazing.”
As she answered, Toone was clearly imagining starting for England at Old Trafford on 6 July for the opening game at the UEFA Women’s EURO. If Toone continues to fire in the goals, she stands a good chance of making the starting XI that day. Whatever the future holds for the young forward, one thing is clear – it’ll be exciting.
England begin their Arnold Clark Cup campaign against Canada at The Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough at 7.30pm tomorrow night.