This level of preparation enabled them to perform consistently in the six matches in Finland on their way to the Final. This takes huge commitment from the players as they strive to perform on the elite international stage, as many of them combine this with jobs, university, family and children. Here is an outline of what they had to keep up...


Top Tip: Drink, Drink, and Drink Some More!

Your body loses water through sweating and so drinking plenty of fluid replaces this and delays when you start to feel tired and helps you recover. During some of the matches in Finland, some players lost over 2kg in sweat during the match. (1kg of weight loss is equivalent to 1 litre of fluid loss).
In the semi-final, hydration became even more important as the match went into extra-time. Here is an overview of their matchday liquid intake, whilst in Finland, which should act as a handy guideline (though all individuals vary) for any player:

During the warm-up and first half of matches, the players mainly drank water or 'Lucozade hydroactive', which contains a bit of sodium to help the body retain the water (no carbohydrate is needed during this time as the body should have enough supplies).

At half-time all of the players drank a carbohydrate drink to replace some of the energy they had used. They all like different drinks and different flavours. Some also needed sodium added to their drinks, if they tended to lose more salt in their sweat and/or suffer from cramping during matches.

In the second half and at 90 minutes, prior to extra time, players drank energy drinks and some ate carbohydrate gels, to replace fluid losses and replace some energy for the extra 30 minutes.

After the game, players again drank some carbohydrate drink, as well as some protein and then enough volume of fluid to restore their body weight.

"Every morning when we are away with England, we provide a urine sample to check our levels of hydration, as this is really important for performance in training and matches." Karen Carney