I never lost faith in England and they can beat Spain in Euros final

Metro

6 days ago

Somehow, England have made it to the European Championship final again. It doesn't matter how – we are there.
Although it was tough, but ultimately joyful, I felt we had more control over the semi-final against Italy, even though we went in 1-0 down at half-time.
I was in Geneva as a fan, sitting in the stands with the players' families, and I don't think anyone around me was doubting we would get back into it. We did look flat and that could have been down to the exertions of the Sweden quarter-final last Thursday.
This time, at least, we only needed one goal rather than two. It turned out to be an unbelievable night.
Michelle Agyemang's Ghanaian surname literally means 'saviour of the nation' and she did exactly that –saving the team by scoring in the 96th minute to get them to extra-time.
England had the momentum and Chloe Kelly's winner a minute before the dreaded penalty shoot-out, considering how bad the spot-kicks were last time, felt so, so good.
I'm being a bit tongue in cheek but nobody wants the lottery of penalties. Now we can go and win the title again and become the first England team to win a major tournament back-to-back.
I really didn't envisage anything other than us going and winning the semi. At no point did I doubt that would happen. Maybe that is my naive optimism but it has seemed to serve me well so far out here.
Now, our opponents in the final are a different prospect. We know what Spain are very, very good at and it's pretty open and relatively simple to dissect how they can be got at too.
We beat them earlier this year in the Nations League so we know we can do it – and that goes for any team the Lionesses face. That's not arrogant or bullish either, just factual. To stop the world champions, who better to have around to advise the coaching staff about the Barcelona core of this team than our former Barca players Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh?
For us, it will be about balls in behind and the pace of our forwards. We have the pace to be able to get at Spain and especially centre-back and captain Irene Paredes. They have chinks in their armour at set-pieces.
You want your substitutes to come on and make the sort of impact England's have so far and I don't think any of the players would choose starting a game over getting the end result, which is what Sarina Wiegman specialises in. Every player understands their job with England and whether that role changes for the final or not, they will accept their part in this team and absolutely go and do what's best for their country.
Jess Carter came on very late against Italy after starting every match at the tournament before that and it was great to see her on the pitch after everything she had to endure in the week prior to the game, having revealed the racist abuse aimed at her on social media.
Everyone is very much united and the Italy win demonstrated that.
Yes, the super-subs are knocking on the door for starting spots but they really have carried out their role with great success.
Sarina never changed her starting XI in 2022 when we won the tournament so why would you change something that is so well-rehearsed and understood by the players?
She could be tempted to go with two up front, with Agyemang alongside Alessia Russo, although it is a rarity for the manager to change her starting XI in reality. More Trending
It is crazy Sarina has now reached five successive major tournament finals as manager of either England or the Netherlands. What she does is create an environment off as well as on the pitch where players can thrive.
There is never a doubt from her that England can get an outcome and for her, rightly, the result outweighs everything. That's not complacency – just real, real belief.
They now need to show that, because we all know how difficult this is going to be if our never-say-die Lionesses are to make history. But we can do it again, we really can.
Rachel Brown-Finnis will be part of the BBC's team covering the Euro 2025 final on Sunday
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