Euro 2022: A lifetime goal, a broken leg and Panini stickers - inside NI's historic win
- Published
Crutches or no crutches, I was going to celebrate
Rachel Furness is Northern Ireland's record goalscorer and helped Kenny Shiels' side make history by qualifying for Euro 2022, NI women's first-ever major tournament.
It was the worst 96 minutes of my life, followed by the best night of my life.
We have dreamt for so long about this and now Northern Ireland are going to Euro 2022. I cannot believe what we have just done, it still doesn't feel real.
I came into the side in 2005 as a young, 16-year-old girl who loved playing for my country. I've had some lows playing for Northern Ireland, and although there have been some highs, nothing will ever top this.
I hugged Simone Magill on the halfway line after the match on Tuesday and there was the realisation that we had done it. We had been saying amongst ourselves for a while that it felt like it was meant to be.
The amount of times we have been challenged, the major injuries we have had - we have been tested so much and we have got through it all as a team.
Highlights: Northern Ireland 2-0 Ukraine
Missing the second match as Seaview on Tuesday with a broken leg was tough. I'm definitely a better player than I am a spectator.
I was trying to head and kick every ball from the stands. I think a lot of the girls on the bench had headaches with me sitting behind them. I was hoping my positivity was getting through and I wanted to help them get over that line.
We are like a family, the togetherness of this whole squad is something I've never experienced before. We could put any team out and the girls on the bench would have been just as pleased for the players starting.
We are such a tight-knit team and we have all bought into this journey. When you go out on the pitch you fight for everything and you throw yourself in front of every ball.
I broke my leg in the first game, and I'd do it all again to get the victory. I think all the girls would be exactly the same because we all want the same thing for each other.
The Kenny effect
Kenny Shiels and his coaching team deserve so much credit. They are the unsung heroes of our journey.
A couple of years ago I would have said we didn't have a chance of reaching a major tournament, yet here we are.
Kenny and the staff believed in us, as footballers, as players and as people. They demanded we play football, they demanded we make mistakes and they demanded that we get better.
After the final qualifier in December, Kenny said he wanted more and we all wanted to go that step further. We were in awe that we made history but we weren't happy to make up the numbers in the play-off, we were immediately looking at how we were going to make it to the finals. I absolutely love that mentality.
I've never been part of something like this, so together and so special. They are geniuses with tactics and you want to do everything you can to be part of this squad.
If you look at my goal in Ukraine, an outsider might say it was lucky because the defender passed it across her box to me, but you don't realise the level of detail that Kenny and his team put in.
We set up in a certain way for when Ukraine played out from the back and yes, it was a bad pass, but I was instructed to be there.
Of course I couldn't believe it five minutes into the game, but that settled us down and set the tone for the rest of the match.
It wasn't a pretty game out there but that gave us something to fight for. That lifted us all and it was down to a well-executed plan.
Watch: Northern Ireland beat Ukraine in first leg of Euro 2022 play-off
And then there was the injury. I have to be dragged off the pitch to come off, especially for my country. I want to play every second.
There was so much adrenaline and I didn't understand why I couldn't just run it off. The pain was soon unbearable and I couldn't plant my foot, which makes sense now because I was running around for five minutes on a broken leg.
I was devastated but the family aspect kicked in again. The girls lifted me and before long I wasn't feeling sorry for myself, it was about us finishing the job.
We managed to get the win thanks to Simone, but Kenny demands better standards all the time.
When we've just beaten Ukraine, who are 25 places above us, away from home in the biggest week of our lives and we weren't happy, I think that says a lot about us as a squad.
History makers
Being so close to making yet more history, we soon realised how much we wanted it - as individuals, as a squad and as a collective.
On the flight home from Ukraine we were positive but our attentions immediately turned to Seaview. It was our home, and we knew we could finish the job.
We tried to treat it like any other game, even though we knew it wasn't. But we were confident in our ability so that kept us grounded and not carried away with the bigger picture.
Back at the hotel, I went round a few of the younger ones and just asked them if they were ready. I knew I wasn't playing, so I was a lot more relaxed and could take myself out of it be there for the other girls.
Our pre-match routine includes taking a team selfie on the pitch
We stuck to our routines. We went for a nice little walk, had naps and some downtime. We rallied around each other and built each other up.
I told them to enjoy the moment because it could have been gone in a flash. If you looked back and didn't enjoy being in that moment then you would have regretted it.
We knew we would leave absolutely everything out on the pitch, but there were more nerves going into the second leg because we had shocked everyone to take the lead.
You could see on the night, from every single person sitting in the stands or on the pitch, just how much we wanted it.
I was doing what I could from the stands. I'm a vocal player on the pitch so I wanted to replicate that to help the girls settle down.
I wanted to be involved as possible despite my injury
Things were looking good, and when Marissa Callaghan scored the opener it was a state of euphoria.
Marissa is our captain and our leader, it's hard to describe how much she means to our group, and she deserves every single bit of praise she gets.
Then when Nadene Caldwell scored the second everything was a blur. We are a team together and we celebrate together. I wanted to jump on top of the girls in the stands and I was waving my crutches everywhere.
Nadene always gives absolutely everything to the team. When she came on she was like a little girl at Christmas, and she helped us get the present we had all been dreaming of.
A childhood dream
There were tears at full-time and I honestly think I'll cry for weeks.
I am so proud of every person involved, and I was crying for every little girl who was watching that game last night, who will now want to aspire to be like us.
I've worked hard all my career to pave the way for the younger ones coming through. We have laid the foundations and set the bar so high, and I hope it goes from strength to strength.
I need to pinch myself, it really hasn't sunk in that we are going to the Euros. I have sacrificed my whole life for this and we're going enjoy every last second of it because we have worked so hard to achieve it.
Hands up if you're going in my sticker album first!
It just feels like a dream. I was saying to Simone that we will be in the Panini stickers and that was a big 'wow' moment for me. I grew up as a kid collecting my favourite players, and now everyone in Northern Ireland has a chance to get the book and place us in it.
After Tuesday's performance I want Sarah McFadden to be my first sticker, and it should be a shiny. The second leg was the best performance I've seen her put in wearing a Northern Ireland shirt. I might even get her to sign it for me.
We have never experienced a feeling like this in all our lives. I hope in these tough times we have inspired the whole country, because the amount of support we have had has been massive to us.
It still feels like a dream, I'll have to pinch myself every morning to make sure it is real and hopefully it will soon settle in that we have made history.
Furness was speaking to BBC Sport's Andy Gray