England forward Aggie Beever-Jones: It’s hard to block ‘outside noise’ at Euros | OneFootball

Chelsea forward Aggie Beever-Jones admits it can be difficult to ignore the “outside noise” as one of England’s buzziest new faces at the Women’s European Championship.

The 21-year old memorably netted a 30-minute hat-trick on her first senior start for the Lionesses at Wembley in late May, and she was a favourite of former Blues-turned-United States boss Emma Hayes, who predicted Beever-Jones would be “a legend not just for Chelsea but for England”.

England manager Sarina Wiegman handed Beever-Jones her major tournament debut in the 84th minute of the defending champions’ 4-0 group-stage triumph over the Netherlands on Wednesday, though many had hoped she would have been introduced a game sooner, in their 2-1 defeat to France.

“If I’m honest, it’s tough,” said Beever-Jones, asked about the challenge of balancing patience and expectation.

“I think there can be a lot of outside noise and ultimately you do have to block it. It comes back to being in the bubble of, for me, I have to make Sarina happy and hopefully I can give her as many headaches in the right way as possible.

“But the times I have played for England, I’ve absolutely loved it. Whenever you put the shirt on, you have immense pride.

“I never take it for granted. Scoring a hat-trick at Wembley is a day I’ll never forget – even that feels surreal for me.”

Beever-Jones, one of England’s seven major-tournament newcomers, is adamant she trusts Wiegman’s decision not to bring her in against France, when the Lionesses were desperately in need of both firepower and an equaliser.

“She did say it was a tough game and she obviously looked elsewhere to bring other people on and I have to respect that,” said Beever-Jones.

“I think for myself, I know my strengths and I know I’ve done it for two years coming off the bench at Chelsea and hopefully making an impact. Sarina is well aware of that and I respected that decision.

“I’ll be ready no matter what, whenever the time comes and she knows that.”

Victory for England against Wales on Sunday night would see them through to the quarter-finals.

Beever-Jones hopes the “young ones” in Switzerland are able to “offer something a bit new”, with some of the substitutes who played a huge part in England lifting the Euro 2022 trophy on home soil now playing much bigger roles in this tournament.

Arsenal striker Alessia Russo has led the line in both of England’s group stage matches so far, while Ella Toone earned the nod over Beth Mead against the Netherlands and scored in the second half.

Beever-Jones added: “Everyone’s so aware that you have starters, you have finishers, people who might not set foot on the pitch, but everyone is equally as important.

“Everyone knows the impact Tooney and Less (Russo) had last Euros and obviously there’s a lot of noise going on about who’s going to be the next two to do that.

“But I think we’re just happy that we have such a world-class squad of 11 players who start and equally people who can come on and create that impact.”