The Arsenal defender’s crisp 18-yard drive into the bottom corner of the Italian net was arguably the finest of the nine goals she has now scored for her country - and it certainly silenced a few of her teasingly scornful colleagues.
White told theFA.com: “My team-mates were taking the mickey out of me the other day because I was shooting for goal all the time - but it obviously paid off! Everyone was so surprised though, because I’m not expected to score goals like that. It’s always nice to score, especially if it’s a winner, but the most important thing is getting the win and it doesn’t matter to me who scores the goals as long as we get the result we want from any match we’re playing in.”
“We were more pleased with the result than the performance, although we were a lot more fluid as a team than we had been in our three group games and it was good to end the tournament on a winning note. We’ve had quite a few key players missing for one reason or another, but that’s given a chance for younger players to gain some valuable tournament experience and that’s been a positive for the long-term development of the team.”
White added, “I’m sure some of the youngsters will be vying for places in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers we’ve got coming up because we’re still going to be without some big players for two very important matches. We’ll be ready though, and the Austria game will be a good one for us to get back into a competitive environment with points at stake. We’ll be expected to win and we’ll be looking to do that with hopefully a few goals.
“That would put us in good stead for Spain because that’s going to be a real toughie. We had two really hard games against them in our qualifying group for Euro 2009 and we can definitely expect the same this time. We play them away in June, when the very hot conditions will suit them perfectly, so winning the home game is crucial. It will be difficult, but we are certainly capable of doing it and the aim will be to keep up our 100 per cent qualifying record.”
