England must tap into the old lump-it-long, bulldog spirit to slay Spain in the Euro 2025 final, writes IAN HERBERT

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

There was a brief moment of confusion on the eve of the Lionesses' Euros semi-final against Italy when Sarina Wiegman was asked if she had 'fallen in love' with England and, not entirely understanding why she was being asked, did not come straight out with the most fulsome answer.
'Yes…' she replied, rather falteringly and without elaboration. Wiegman later said it had been a comprehension problem. It can be this way with her. English language and colloquialisms — 'console your team' and 'let the cat out of the bag' — have flummoxed her over the past few years.
The question was extremely relevant given the way 'Englishness', in an old-fashioned 1980s football sense, has been the team's watchword here, and referenced by a2 number of the players of how England survived a bumpy road to reach Sunday's final against Spain.
Chloe Kelly arrived to speak on Tuesday as the semi-final's player of the match and declared: 'I'm proud to be English.' The theme resurfaced when Keira Walsh was asked about the never-say-die resilience which rescued the team against Sweden in the last eight, then Italy, 30 seconds from time.
'It's a part of being English,' she said. 'What we speak about as a team is that English resilience and we pride ourselves on it.'
The FA have gone to great lengths to create a different definition of Englishness in the past 10 years. There is the fabled 'England DNA', dreamt up at St George's Park, about progressive, technical football through all the age groups and, under Gareth Southgate, a more broad-minded, less narrow view of nationhood. But the Lionesses in these past three weeks have reverted to what men's football would call the bulldog spirit: a fighting, never-say-die mentality.
'Do or die' has been the only way, as seen in the dramatic last-eight and semi-final comebacks
Some of this fighting spirit has been a necessary product of England's failure to get anywhere near the technical levels they found in the 2022 tournament. Finalists they might be, but they have not played well in progressing the ball up the pitch.
'Do or die' has been the only way. To watch back the two goals England scored in their comeback win against Spain in the 2022 quarter-final is to be reminded of how diminished in technical brio and confidence they seem to have become.
But there has also been a profitable reversion to the old England. When her team was being torn apart by France in the opening game, Wiegman told Walsh, the midfield technician, to play longer balls. Against the Dutch, who England rightly expected would press them, Walsh went vertical again in what was the team's best display here.
'It helped us playing longer,' Walsh said. 'It plays to our forwards' strengths. If the way to win is playing one straight pass that's what we're going to do.' Against the weaker Welsh, England played through the midfield. The numbers bear out this reversion to what was once an admired and feared brand of English football. The percentage of England passes sent long has increased from 10.6 per cent at the 2023 World Cup, where they were beaten by Spain in the final, to 13.2 here, Stats Perform data shows. Their number of successful passes which are long is 201 (9.1 per cent) compared with 5.8 per cent at the World Cup and 7.5 per cent at the 2022 Euros.
Heading into a final against the best passing team in the world, the principles of scrapping and lumping it seem a good way to win and find sweet recompense for the one-sided 2023 World Cup final. Become engaged in a midfield battle with Patri Guijarro, Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas and it could be a long night.
Beautiful though their tiki-taka aesthetic was in the semi-final against Germany, Spain struggled to create scoring chances.
A long ball attack on Spain down England's left would put Lauren Hemp up against right back Ona Batlle. Hemp has had the better of that battle during Manchester derbies, when Batlle played for United and Hemp, now at Barcelona, was with City. The key is getting Hemp in behind Batlle to find crosses which can target the 34-year-old Spanish captain Irene Paredes, whose lack of pace can be exploited.
England's equaliser against Spain three years ago demonstrated the value of going aerial in this way. A gorgeous left-footed cross by Hemp saw Alessia Russo beat Parades in the air, leaving her flat on the ground as Ella Toone pounced on the dropping ball to score. England won 2-1.
There were similarities between that Toone goal and the equaliser against Italy: a cross from even deeper on the right and the ball dropping to Michelle Agyemang to score. England get lots of bodies in the box and have some of the best headers of the ball in this tournament.
The potential for this plan to deliver the early goal screams out for 19-year-old Agyemang, the prodigy, to start, though she almost certainly will not.
Wiegman bristled when asked on Tuesday if Agyemang, who appeared from the bench in both knock-out games here and changed the course of them, was forcing her to consider her as a starter. 'She's not forcing me,' Wiegman said. 'She's grateful for minutes and been ready for it.'
A vital contributor to a more direct approach will be Lucy Bronze — a huge presence in the past month. She got forward down the right for the back-post header against the Swedes. Her decisive penalty in that game confirmed her as the fearless epitome of this resilient England.
'I don't think we've ever negated tactics or anything else that comes with the game with the term 'proper England', Bronze said. 'But we don't want to ever forget we are England — proper England — and if push comes to shove, we can win in any means possible.'
Georgia Stanway, another of the pillars of the team, feels the same. 'We've spoken about wanting to be proper England,' she said. 'We want to go back to what we're good at, a traditional style of football in terms of tough tackles, getting back down to our roots.'
It has been a rollercoaster ride for this team. Perhaps the most improbable journey to a final. But the chaos of these past weeks has armed them with a psychological edge: a knowledge they are never beaten.