EVERY picture tells a story, and Lisa Evans will forever cherish her moments of shared glory with Pep Guardiola, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and the rest of the Bayern Munich men’s squad just over a week ago.
The Scotland attacker wasn’t slow in coming forward to give the photographers plenty of joyous scenes as the Bavarian giants celebrated winning the men’s and women’s German titles. Coincidentally both did it by the same ten-point margin – the men from Borussia Dortmund and Evans’ Frauen Bundesliga side from Champions League finalists Wolfsburg.
“The celebrations were amazing,” the 24-year-old, who is originally from Perth, confirmed. “Mind-blowing, completely mind-blowing. If you’ve seen the pictures you’ll see that we’re at the town hall with all the fans outside to see us. There were thousands and thousands of them all cheering when we came out.
“It’s great that the men’s team made us feel included in the celebrations. I think that’s the second time they’ve done it. We had a party with the men’s team on the Saturday night, having been in their stadium in the afternoon just to get congratulated.
“Then on the Monday we were all there at the town hall. I actually walked out with Franck Ribery, but in the photos Arjen Robben is in the background.”
The dramatic scenes concluded Evans’ first season at Bayern Munich, having spent the previous three at another German club, Turbine Potsdam. She was lured away from Glasgow City after Potsdam’s legendary coach, Bernd Schroeder, spotted her potential as a 19-year-old in a Champions League match.
Four years later Evans speaks German and is an important member of a multi-national Bayern squad. As well as a nucleus of home-based players, the squad boasts internationalists from as far and wide as Japan, the United States, Holland and Finland.
Evans now turns her attention to the Euro 2017 double-header against Iceland at Falkirk Stadium on Friday and Belarus in Minsk four days later. A win in either game looks likely to book a place in next summer’s finals in the Netherlands.
Evans is just one of several players in Anna Signeul’s squad who appears to be playing at a higher club level than the Iceland players. Nevertheless, Friday visitors are the top seeds in Group 1 and have always been higher in the Fifa rankings.
But Evans is confident that this is the year that Scotland will finally qualify for a major championship.
“Iceland are top seeds in the group and area really good side,” Evans said. “We’ve always had tough games against them, but we know we’ve got a really good chance to win. I think it does give us an advantage that we’ve got players in top leagues.”
Evans admits it would be “devastating” if Scotland somehow found a way not to qualify from the prime position they are in, especially as all the European internationalists at her club seem certain to be in Holland.
“Reaching the finals is everyone’s aim,” she pointed out. “It’s going to be emotional if we do get there, although we’re taking it step by step, trying not to think too far ahead.”
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