Russo on how she feels she has improved over the past year:
“I play my best football when I’m enjoying myself and I know I’m training hard and I’m getting my work done, so that’s something that I can always control.
“There’s so many different aspects to a number nine position, it’s so detailed and there are so many fine margins. I’m always still learning. We have great coaches here at Arsenal. I have great players to learn off as well. Then when the big games come around, the more you do them, the more you get used to them.”
On winning Euro 2025 with England:
“The whole tournament was a complete rollercoaster. It was highs and lows. It was emotionally really hard. It was taxing on our bodies.
“I remember after the Sweden [quarter-final] game, a lot of us were really, really battered and bruised. It was so intense. But you’ve got to turn it around quickly. It moves so fast.
“I think the way that we won throughout that whole tournament was just grit and resilience. And I think that we knew that we had the squad, we knew that we had what it takes.
“You’re playing against the best teams in the world, the best players in the world and sometimes you have to win a little bit dirty sometimes.”
On the Champions League final:
“The overriding feeling that I can remember from that whole day was just being so calm, like we knew we’d done the work, we knew that we had what it takes, and we knew that we believed in the game plan and what we wanted to do.
“Obviously playing against a team like Barcelona, you’ve got to be comfortable not having the ball because they’re so talented. When they do have the ball that they don’t give it away that often.
“As players in the press and out of possession, we were really focused on our job at hand. It was a lot of running and a lot of defensive work. But ultimately that’s what got the job done. I think that you have to be OK winning games like that as well.”
On Arsenal and England legend Kelly Smith being her idol growing up:
“I got the pleasure of watching her a few times with my dad. Seeing her for England, too, she was just incredible. I wish that she could have played longer and still be playing now, but she was one of the best ever.
“I think anyone that has played with Kelly would say the same thing and I never got the pleasure of doing that. But watching her was someone that I always used to love.”