Sarina Wiegman hails Sweden clash 'most chaotic' of her career as England progress to semi-finals

Yahoo

4 days ago

Sarina Wiegman admitted England's quarter-final victory on penalties against Sweden was the most chaotic match she had ever experienced.
The Lionesses came back from two goals behind to draw 2-2 in normal time before winning 3-2 in a penalty shootout that saw nine misses before Lucy Bronze buried her sudden death spot-kick and Smilla Holmberg sent hers over.
It means England will face Italy in their semi-final on Tuesday but Wiegman was unable to think ahead as she tried to process the emotions of a tense night in Zurich.
'I'm very hyper,' she said. 'I'm still very emotional and I think the adrenaline is still in my body. It was a crazy game.
'That was absolutely the most chaotic game I've been a part of. I can't remember anything like this.'
England went a goal down inside two minutes when Kosovare Asllani capitalised on a mistake at the back to slot home the opener.
It was just the first warning side of a poor first-half from the England team who appeared to revert to the ways of their first match against France which saw passes go astray.
England would concede a second on 25 minutes as Stina Blackstenius raced onto Julia Zigiotti Olme's throughball to strike, leaving Wiegman to admit it was not the start they hoped for.
'Of course we wanted to start the game a lot better than we did. In the first two or three minutes we were 1-0 down and that's not a good start of course,' she reflected.
'Then really quickly they scored the second goal and we were really struggling with coming into the game.
'You want to start playing football but we didn't do that. So then you start to think how can I help the team to start playing better?
'In the second-half I thought we did start playing a bit better but we didn't create that much.
'When you're in the 18-yard box and you put the ball in, they're so good defensively that you have to go either far post or create something at the edge of the box and we were struggling with that.
'So you just need a couple of players with different attributes in the game that are changing the picture.'
Those players came in the form of a triple substitution in the 70th minute as Beth Mead, Esme Morgan and 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang all entered the field.
But it was Chloe Kelly who created real impact when she came on eight minutes later to assist Lucy Bronze's header and set up Mead to nod down for Agyemang's equaliser.
'They bring something different to the game,' explained Wiegman. 'That really helped the team in that moment.
'Also, Sweden at that moment had to adapt to different things that we do and before they could adapt it was 2-2. So that was the power of that today.
'Niamh Charles also came in and she had a crucial header to win that duel and keep it 2-2.
'That's really hard to come in, in that intensity and to show up and do the right things is really impressive. That shows the strength of this team.'
It was a strength they carried into a penalty shootout after the 30 minutes of extra-time had remained goalless.
England missed four of their seven penalties, with Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly and Lucy Bronze the only to convert. But thankfully for them, Sweden were even more wasteful from the spot.
'I thought we were out twice today,' confessed Wiegman. 'There were so many penalties that I was really concerned. That needs a bit of luck that they then miss.
'In the Finalissima and against Nigeria we had really good shootouts and today we weren't good enough, let's put it that way.
'So of course I was concerned because we were missing and I know players are capable of taking a penalty because they're really good.
'You can talk about reasons, the fatigue, the whole picture, I think it was just really hard. But of course we were concerned.
'We have trained penalty shootouts and we know what players are capable of and we will of course prepare but it will not be a big focus ahead of Italy.'