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Cyprus Cup 2014: England's Karen Carney targets more goals

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Karen CarneyImage source, PA

Birmingham City's Karen Carney hopes to add to her England goal tally in Friday's Cyprus Cup tie with Finland.

Midfielder Carney, 26, has twice caused Finland's downfall, including when she hit as a 17-year-old.

She was also on target when the Finns were beaten 3-1 at the 2012 Cyprus Cup.

Media caption,

England 2-0 Italy

"In the past I've set up far more goals than I've scored, but I do need to score more," said Carney, who has netted 17 times in 90 England matches.

"The goal I got against Finland at Euro 2005 was a massive moment for me, but more importantly that was a very special day for women's football in England.

"There were almost 30,000 spectators at the Etihad Stadium, and the response we got proved there's definitely a place for the women's game in this country."

Carney converted a penalty in England's 2-0 win against Italy on Wednesday in their first game of this year's Cyprus Cup.

The Finns, who are 23rd in the world rankings, 12 places below England, need a win after they lost 3-0 to Canada in their Group A opener.

"We've carried on doing pretty well against Finland, but we won't disrespect them because they're a good team with a decent world ranking," added Carney.

"Our objective is to reach the final though, and hopefully we can get a win to put ourselves in a healthy position going into our last group match against Canada."

In Group B, Scotland, following a surprise but well-earned 1-1 draw with France in their first match, face the Netherlands on Friday after the Dutch drew 2-2 with Australia.

Scotland head coach Anna Signeul was delighted with the result against a French team who are fifth in the world, 15 places higher than the Scots.

"The Netherlands are also above us in the rankings (14th) but I am sure the girls will step up to another big challenge," said Signeul.

"We must aim to build on our excellent performance against France.

"We are getting stronger as a team with every game we play, and hopefully this will be another step in our development."

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