Harrop keen to avoid final-day thriller

Denied the opportunity of playing at last year's UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship finals, England defender Kerys Harrop is determined to make up for lost time in Belarus – starting with a semi-final place.

'Last chance'
This time last year Birmingham City LFC centre-back Harrop was enduring a frustrating summer, keeping tabs from afar as Mo Marley's team were edged out after the group stages. "I played in qualifying but got injured for the finals so wasn't available," said the 18-year-old. "This is my last chance – for the [FIFA Women's U-20] World Cup too – so I want to make sure we qualify." To do that England need only a point from Sunday's Group B meeting with Iceland, and after keeping clean sheets in their last six matches Harrop knows another will see the side through. "In the second qualifying round and this tournament so far we've kept it solid at the back. We're a good unit, know each other's games and hopefully we can keep it going."

Defensive steel
The resilience of that back line has been tested in Belarus, and last time out Norway sought to exploit an obvious height advantage only to find an England defence who do not, according to Marley, "know they are small". "We identified [Sweden's aerial threat] as one of their big strengths before the game so we were conscious of keeping on the right side of them," said Harrop. "Even though we have a small squad we still win a lot of aerial balls. Everyone was a bit disappointed with a 0-0 draw but I'm not sure why because it was a good result, keeps us top of the table. We knew our quality wasn't the best so everyone's on a bit of a downer but we have to stay positive, keep smiling."

No shrinking violet
The cheery Harrop certainly practices what she preaches and neither she nor fellow defender Chelsea Weston needed much encouragement to lead England's rendition of Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror at Friday's players' party. They will be in more familiar guise come Sunday evening, and Harrop is determined there will be no repeat of the 2-0 friendly defeat England's senior team suffered against their Iceland counterparts on Thursday. "I was quite shocked," she said. "It shows Iceland cannot be taken lightly. They are an up-and-coming team with the seniors and it's probably the same with the U19s. We'll have to step it up. We know we can do better than we did against Norway; we know we can improve – I'm sure that will show against Iceland."