Manchester United Women goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce has elaborated on her experiences in the Champions League to date.
The American keeper enjoyed a fantastic first season as the team’s number one last year, being nominated for the PFA Womens’ Players’ Player of the Year award.
Great performance last weekend
Commenting ahead of her side’s huge Champions League match later today against SK Brann she praised United’s efforts in their 5-1 win over London City Lionesses on Sunday.
Speaking to the club’s official website she stated, “definitely a solid performance by the team. I love seeing all those goals, I think it was a great confidence booster for us. Our backline was great, we would have liked to have kept a clean sheet but we are right on that. We know the path that we want to take.”
Excitement of Champions League
Tullis-Joyce was then asked to give her thoughts on her experience of the Champions League so far and she claimed, “super excited, I know I have been talking to Jayde (Riviere) a lot in the dressing room and we are just excited about playing in the Champions League for the first time. We had a little blip back in Norway, props to their fans, that stadium was absolutely roaring. It was great to be part of it and we had the chances, so we are looking forward to being at our home stadium at Leigh and having all our home fans behind us.”
Commenting on the first leg defeat to Brann she concluded, “pressure is a privilege and we love finding ourselves in these moments, like it’s a good problem to have. Being 1-0 down to Brann is a good problem to have. We look forward to the next moment that we have and we have that fire, that’s what it means to us, to bring everything to this because this is what these type of games demand.”
She also praised the flexibility of Marc Skinner’s side and claimed they are ready to meet any challenge that Brann throw their way.
Tullis-Joyce also spoke on the unity of the group and how vital their ability to communicate and support each other is to the club’s strength and ability to handle tough situations.
Special experience
The goalkeeper hinted to the fact that she probably didn’t appreciate how important Champions League football was in the European game when she answered, “I just think it’s special. As an American, I didn’t really know what it meant to be in the Champions League. It is a thrill and it is so special to be a part of this. It is just do-or-die, it is so crazy.”
She added that it was even more special knowing the reason they got there was due to the hard work and grit they had to show last year to qualify for the tournament.
Finally, she echoed her head coach’s feeling that the home supporters will play a pivotal role in the second leg and claimed, “our supporters are the absolute best, our home fans, our travelling fans, all of them. We will definitely feel them all together and we will need them for this game.”
United welcome Brann to the Leigh Sports Village this evening at 19:00 BST.
Feature image Matt McNulty via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
