By Hannah Blackwell
Wales defender Ffion Morgan is relishing a “scary” end to the season for club and country.
Morgan is part of the Wales squad seeking to build on Thursday’s impressive 4-1 friendly victory over Northern Ireland against World Cup-bound Portugal.
But Morgan is also focusing on the finale of the FA Women’s Championship campaign with her club Bristol City holding a three-point lead over London City Lionesses in the fight for the one promotion spot with three games remaining.
“It’s scary but it’s also exciting,” Morgan said ahead of Tuesday’s visit to Guimaraes to take on opponents ranked 21st in the world and 10 places higher than Wales.
“We are three points clear and it’s in our control. We are quite a young side and there is lots of pressure.
“But we all want to get that promotion and play in the WSL (Women’s Super League).
“I want to take it to the next level with Bristol City and Wales.”
Morgan, 22, won her 23rd cap off the bench against Northern Ireland as Gemma Grainger’s side continued to build strong foundations ahead of inaugural Nations League action later this year.
Wales take on Portugal in an international friendly at the Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques.
Live coverage on @BBCTwo Wales and @BBCCymruFyw
Kick-Off: Tomorrow at 5.30pm pic.twitter.com/w957KPj36t
— BBC Wales 🏴 (@BBCWales) April 10, 2023
It was further evidence that Wales are heading in the right direction after just missing out qualification for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“The biggest thing now is the belief in the squad that we can do well,” full-back Morgan said at a McDonald’s Fun Football and Happy Readers event.
“We know we have got the quality to compete against top teams and we have to find that extra one per cent to qualify for major tournaments.
“Portugal are used to qualifying for major tournaments in recent years and they will be playing at the World Cup this summer.
“So this is a good game for us to go away and test ourselves against that sort of opposition.
“We’ve shown when we’ve played nations like France and Denmark that we can produce good performances and it’s about taking it on to the next level.”
Carrie Jones and Lily Woodham miss out having returned to their clubs after picking up injuries.
:: Ffion Morgan was speaking at the Cardiff Happy Readers and Fun Football event celebrating McDonald’s pledge to distribute over 10m books and over 2m hours of free Fun Football coaching to families in the UK this year. Find out more visit mcdonalds.co.uk/family
FT | 🏴 4-1 NI
WHAT A PERFORMANCE! 💫#BeFootball | #TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/ObHO6cLFQI
— Wales 🏴 (@Cymru) April 6, 2023