Courtney Brosnan on Mary Earps: ‘I think she’s a great player and these past two years she’s been amazing for England winning the EUROs’

After Ireland face France on Friday, the European champions England will come to Dublin next Tuesday to take on the Girls in Green. The Lionesses squad is packed with world class talent.

England’s 23 woman squad includes seven players who will line out against one another in the Champions League semi-final later this month between reigning holders Barcelona (2) and Chelsea (5) who sit second in the WSL.

The Lionesses have a further 13 players from the other three teams in the top four of the WSL – league leaders Manchester City (6), third placed Arsenal (3) and Manchester United (4) who sit one position below Katie McCabe’s Gunners side.

It will be United’s goalkeeper Mary Earps who will be between the sticks in the Aviva for England. The winner last year of the Golden Glove Award at the World Cup and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award has been a crucial part of the success for Sarina Wiegman’s side over the last few seasons.

Last weekend Earps’ United beat Everton 4-1 in the WSL and so Ireland keeper Courtney Brosnan got a close up look at No. 1 for the Lionesses.

“I think she’s a great player and these past two to three years she’s been amazing for England winning the EUROs,” said Everton and Ireland goalkeeper Brosnan when she spoke this week ahead of the trip to France on Friday.

“She’s somebody that a lot of people look up to and I have a huge amount of respect for her.”

Brosnan is a player who takes an interest in her opposite number and her own performance as she looks to improve her play. “I really do enjoy watching other goalkeepers in the WSL or different national teams.

"The position is always about picking up different things and finding out what works for you. It’s cool to watch other goalkeepers and see what they do. Then you can be like, ‘maybe I could try that and it could work for me’.

“(The squad) will watch a lot of clips of the opposition and goalkeepers will watch clips of the forwards and wingers to try and see their tendencies but I think I really like to watch clips of myself from training and from the games.

"I feel that goalkeeping is so detail oriented and it is all about these little moments, maybe the distances of six inches like that. I think it is great to have that (analysis) resource to make changes and continue to learn.”

Goalkeeper union

Brosnan has made the number one shirt her own for Ireland since 2021 which has limited game time for other goalkeepers in the squad. The 28-year-old spoke about the Ireland goalkeeper’s union in glowing terms. 

"It's a great group of goalkeepers here. Grace (Moloney) and Sophie (Whitehouse) have been in for a long time now and I think we have such a good relationship.

"Grace is one of my really close friends so it's really nice to have someone in your corner that knows what it's like to be a goalkeeper and can kind of give you feedback and you have honest conversations with. 

“I think that's great and it's something Emma (Byrne) has brought as well. We're all talking to each other about where we can be better, what can we do, where people see different things. I think that's great competition that we have and obviously there's a lot of jokes flying around too which is always fun.

“We're all each other's number one fans but at the end of the day we all want to be the one that steps on the pitch to play so I think it's that balance of that healthy competition where we're there for each other, we're backing each other up but we're also pushing each other. 

“I want Grace to be the best goalkeeper she can be and Sophie as well. I like to think they would say the same thing about me. I think that's how we all progress forward as a group and get results as a team."

Brosnan has been sharing a club dressing room at Everton this season with fellow Ireland international Heather Payne, something that the goalkeeper has really enjoyed. 

“It’s been amazing. I really can’t speak highly enough about Heather. I think it’s been great for her to step up to the WSL.

"She’s obviously proved herself as a starter week-in-week-out battling against the best…up against the likes of (World Cup winner) Lucia Garcia this weekend (against Manchester United). She’s been great and I’m really proud of her.”

Tyler Toland leaning on Levante experience as big international week beckons - https://t.co/94rjArr8tjhttps://t.co/OLm9s4rBNb

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) April 3, 2024

High ranking opponents

Ireland will need their players to be at their best to get any positive result in the upcoming matches where they will take on world number 2 and 3 (England and France). If Brosnan can add to her tally of 16 clean sheets from her 34 caps to date, it will be viewed as a successful EURO 2025 qualifier window. 

“We know it is a really difficult draw to have these extremely good opponents and high ranking opponents but this is where we want to be in League A and testing ourselves against the best. 

“When you are playing these big teams, these are the games that you need to get results in - try and win or get a draw. We want to keep progressing forwards.

"We have been here before facing Sweden in the World Cup qualifiers (and earning a 1-1 away draw) so it is similar but adding France and England into the mix. It will be a tough challenge I'm sure.

“Playing in the Aviva was class (against Northern Ireland last September). It was such an amazing experience seeing the crowd backing us. We are hoping to get that again against England (on Tuesday).”

Kyra Carusa: ‘They say iron sharpens iron - in order to become better, sharper and to step up, you have to play against the best.’ https://t.co/6EqJLRfrozpic.twitter.com/7fsegD9KV7

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) April 2, 2024