‘I’ve never had a day like this’ – Charlespublished at 13:47 British Summer Time 29 July
Image source, Getty ImagesEngland defender Niamh Charles on BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’ve never had a day like this, never ever. If I think back to the younger me that came to visit Buckingham Palace, I never would have thought that I would be stood here now. I never would have believed it, it is absolutely crazy. Me and my family did a weekend down here, we went around all of the sights, and we actually have pictures of me posing here so it is crazy to think this is the reality of women’s football now and what we have done.”
On what she was seeing from the open-top bus: “I was just trying to focus on individual faces. There were so many people but I just wanted to look at individual faces. I saw older people, younger people, people from every different walk of life. They were just so happy to be there and it was so lovely to be able to share this with them. It is for them, so it was so special to see people’s faces.”
On scoring her penalty in the final: “It was nerve-wracking in a sense, but we have worked really hard on our process of it so it was just about not overthinking it and doing my job. I had to switch off because I knew how my family would be feeling as soon as I stepped up.”