First up, Caitlin, we have to talk about winning the UEFA Champions League – even though it was last year now! What are your memories of the match itself?
I’ve always enjoyed having the underdog tag, and going into that game against Barcelona, we all had that. That’s kind of a nice feeling because it really eases the pressure on us. We weren’t expected to win the Champions League, but we absolutely knew that we could.
Everyone in the team knew the final would be incredibly hard and it was going to take every single one of us to win. When the day arrived, I could see everyone was focused and ready to leave it all out there. Regardless of the result, we all knew that if we gave everything for the badge, there was nothing more we could do. But of course the stakes felt so high.
Barcelona are a side that loves to dictate play and we knew that we weren’t going to have a lot of the ball in Lisbon. It was a case of everyone accepting that we’d have less possession than we’re used to and that we’d have to get back behind the ball and defend for our lives. I think we did that extremely well.
For me, as a winger, I had to shift my focus to my defensive role first and my attacking role second. In saying that, we wanted to go for it as well! As I think everyone could see, we pressed them high and they weren’t used to that. Barcelona are used to teams dropping off, which is something we spoke about beforehand. We didn’t want to give them time. We wanted to put them under as much pressure as possible and create an environment they weren’t accustomed to.
There was a moment when I made a last-ditch block and I don’t know what came over me, but it felt like I’d scored. I’d crossed over with Foxy on that right side, so I was in that full back role. The ball Rolfo was looking to play seemed impossible, but there were numbers in the box and that’s the kind of pass Barcelona can play, so I just put my body on the line and got there for the block. Every chance we stopped felt like a win that day.
I guess it was the adrenaline that made me celebrate like that. Tracking back is hard work, so I was also glad it had paid off! It was never a deliberate choice to get into Barcelona’s heads, but when you’re on the other side of that and see how excited a team are to stop you, it has an impact. We created so much energy for each other that day: celebrating every win we could and encouraging one another. It kept us going on a very hot day.