27 October 2020

Everton’s Valerie Gauvin has said FA Cup final is an occasion ‘you work hard for all of your career’

Everton striker Valerie Gauvin believes the FA Cup final will be an ‘amazing occasion’ and one that players ‘work hard for all of your career’.

The Toffees earned their spot in the final after defeating Chelsea in the quarter-final and Birmingham City in the semi.

She said: “Playing in big events like the World Cup will help and make sure you go into the game with a lot less stress. It is going to be an absolutely amazing occasion for us to have this chance to play at Wembley.

“After all you try to achieve as a youngster in football growing up, you work hard for days and occasions like this. The form we go to the final with will give us lots of confidence, too.

“We want to give everything we can to perform well and win the trophy. I hope we can do that and make the Club and our fans proud.”

The French international is having a good run of form. She has scored five goals in eight appearances since joining Everton before the 2020/21 season and she recently broke the world record for the fastest international goal in women’s football history.

Gauvin scored after ten seconds into France’s Euro qualifier against North Macedonia on October 23, a match France ended up winning 11-0.

She took the record off of Everton team-mate and Northern Ireland player Simone Magill, who scored after 11 seconds back in 2016 against Georgia.

“Simone is great, she is a really nice character. We get on well, she is a lovely person," Gauvin added.

“On the field, she is very tough physically but she is a different profile to me, in the sense she likes the ball more into feet – whereas I like it in the air.

“She is an excellent player, and I am very happy to have her as a teammate.”

The FA Cup final will take place between Everton and Manchester City on November 1.

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