The Way Esmee

A Group E interview with the 19-year-old PSV attacker whose cross bounced in against Iceland to send the Netherlands to the World Cup with two minutes to spare. Brugts describes the relief of that moment after watching an hour from the bench, and admits she was starstruck on first joining a squad whose senior players she knew only by their full names. She was 14 when the Netherlands won the home Euros in 2017, attending as a flag bearer the Denmark-Germany quarter-final that rain forced to be replayed. On Vivianne Miedema’s absence she says it will take more than one player to fill, and explains that Andries Jonker deploys her almost as an attacking left-back.