The 2nd game of our marathon day was a re-run of last years G15 final v Vartans IK who are the top U16 team in Sweden, boasting international players in their ranks. This would be a real heavyweight encounter, and so it proved to be.
In perfect conditions on a grass pitch with a big expectant crowd the game kicked off. Vartans scored first after a goalmouth scramble resulting from a corner but Zoe Ness restored parity after rounding the goalkeeper and firing in. The girls were taking the game to our Swedish hosts when, against the run of play, we scored an own goal. A deflected cross looked to be looping right over Amy's head and into the far corner till she pulled off a fantastic save, managing to parry it out only to see it hit our defenders head and go back in the goal. Very cruel.
This seemed to galvanise the girls and it was one way traffic from then on with Vartans reeling on the ropes and basically trying to hang on and waste time. Brooke Smith hit the bar and it seemed like it just wasn't going to be our day when Lauren Jordinson, on one of her forays up front, slid in on the ball during a melee in their box and managed to divert it to Beth Jennings who coolly finished.
Vartans were praying for penaltys at this point as we ran rings round them but couldn't force it in. Penaltys it was and if there was any justice then we would win.
We scored 4 out of 5 while Amy saved one and they missed the other. Cue massive celebrations as we put right the result from last year..... Now we had a ridiculous 15km trip on public transport straight to the next game against a team who had had 10 hours rest from their only game that day....