England midfielder Fara Williams is hoping to see a big crowd at St Mary’s on Friday night, as Phil Neville’s Lionesses take on Wales in a crunch World Cup qualifier.
England head into the match buoyed by their recent rise to second place in the world rankings, behind only USA, and Reading’s Williams is hopeful of continuing that feel-good factor on the south coast.
“Southampton is a fantastic stadium,” she said. “It’s a lovely pitch and hopefully we’ll have a big crowd – we’ll do all we can to get them there.
“England v Wales – what a game to come and watch and hopefully they do come out and watch.
“They [Wales] are top of the group at the minute, so we want to get the three points, get ourselves to the top and qualify as quickly as we can.
“Every game is important for us, but Wales is a little different. I’m sure they’ll favour themselves, knowing most of our players.
“We now need to go and show how far this England team has come and we should be finishing teams like that, and getting results quite easily.”
Williams, who has played more than 150 times for her country, is not underestimating Wales, who sit at the top of Group 1, but only one point better off, having played a game more than England, who have won all three of their opening qualifiers on the road to France 2019.
“It’s a really important game for us,” she said. “We need three points on the board and we want to qualify as early as we can for this World Cup, so for us, it’s an important one.
“It’s a tough game, you know. I’m very familiar with a lot of their players because most of them are playing in the FA WSL 1. We’re well prepared for this game and determined.”
England face Wales in a FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifier at St. Mary’s Stadium on Friday 6th April (7pm BST). Buy tickets (£10 Adult/£1 Under-18) at thefa.com/tickets, tickets.saintsfc.co.uk, or by calling 02381 780 780.
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