BREDA, July24, 2017 – While England’s head coach Mark Sampson described the night in Bredaas “pivotal”, some will say a particular night on the 4th of March in 1590should go down as the most important night in the history of the city. A  Trojan horse style attack from English fleets,resulted in the taking of Breda from Spanish troops.

Then, asmall assault force had to overcome the extreme cold of the Dutch winter. Thistime around, the English squad at WEURO 2017 seemed to have done at least onerain dance on their way to Breda to propitiate the gods.

It wouldhave actually rained goals if England and Spain had been able to prolong theirattacking spirits showcased during the opening minutes of the game. The crowdinstead had to settle for the figural cats and dogs as rain continued to fallfrom the sky throughout the entire match.

AlthoughSpain dominated possession for large parts of the game, England again recordeda clean sheet against a side that rarely tested English goalkeeper KarenBarsley. “We have been working on our fitness and that came into play a lottoday. If you get ahead, you need to stay in the game and see the game out toget to the next game. That is what it is all about,” said English defender LucyBronze, who was named Player of the Match, during the post-match pressconference. 

She added:“It is one of the top defensive performances I have been part of because of theopponent and conditions. The girls stayed concentrated the entire match and toget another goal at the end is credit to our performance.”

Naturally,Mark Samspon was also very delighted with the performance of his squad. Thehead coach of the English national team said: “I am in awe of this group ofplayers for their resilience, work ethic and desire to make not only theirfamily and friends but also the country proud. Sometimes the game does not goas you would have liked it to go, but I am damn happy tonight and so will thefans be.”

While Spainnever really looked like scoring, the Spanish head coach Jorge Vilda was stillfull of praises for his players. “I congratulated the girls for their work inthe dressing room. We played well and dominated possession, but we need toimprove the fact we committed errors and also be a bit more incisive inattack.”

Vildaadded: I am convinced this way of playing will get us wins in the upcominggames. The group is open and our objective is to qualify for the quarters. Theimportant thing is to prepare well for Scotland now."

Follow Jeroen Adriaanse on Twitter @J_Adriaanse