Women's World Cup: Casey Stoney will battle to end England hoodoo against Norway

Arsenal defender Casey Stoney is hoping her baby twins can watch her make history tonight as England, set to face Norway in the Round of 16, look for a first ever Women’s World Cup knockout victory.

Stoney, who last year came out as gay and whose partner Megan Harris give birth to twins Teddy and Tilly in November, made her first appearance of the tournament in last Wednesday’s 2-1 group win against Colombia.

“My first thought when I was told I was in the team,” said Stoney, “was that my babies could watch their mummy playing.

“Unfortunately we can’t afford to have Megan and the twins come over here for the tournament, so they had to watch the game at home on the TV.

“But I put in a performance for them as well as for the team and myself, and we got a deserved and very important win to take us into the knockout rounds.”

In all three of the three previous World Cups England have contested they progressed beyond the group stage, but on each occasion they then fell at the first knockout hurdle.

That hurdle in the past has been the quarter-finals, but with the tournament expanded to 24 teams this year there is a Round of 16 to negotiate.

And Norway, who England face in Ottawa, will be difficult opponents to get past reckons Stoney.

“It will be our toughest test of the competition so far,” said Stoney, at 33 the oldest player in the England squad and appearing at her third World Cup.

“Norway are a team that are very direct, very physical and very honest in terms of work ethic – they keep coming at you for 90 minutes.

“They’ve got a good front three and so they’re very dangerous in attack, so we’ll have to be at our very best to beat them.

“But I absolutely believe we can do that. We can take the game to them, and this England team has got players that can hurt any side left in the competition.

“We’ve built good momentum through the group stage and we feel we can keep progressing through the rounds.

“I don’t have to be told we’ve never won a World Cup knock-out game before, I’ve been involved in two of them.

“In that sense beating Norway would take massive pressure off us, and we could hopefully move on from there all the way to the final.”