Latest news with #Letzigrund
CNA
6 days ago
- Sport
- CNA
Bronze and grit help England beat Sweden
ZURICH :England heroine Lucy Bronze said it was "grit, determination and hard work" that pushed the team to win their UEFA Women's quarter-final against Sweden, as her teammates and coach paid tribute to her action-packed performance. The defending champions clawed their way back into the match after conceding two first half goals and scoring twice in the second half to take the match at Zurich's Letzigrund stadium to extra time and penalties. Bronze scored England's first goal, and the Chelsea defender went on to get the decisive goal in the penalty shootout, where England triumphed 3-2. The team was determined not to lose, Bronze said. "It wasn't beautiful, but it got us through." When asked about her own performance, she said: "I just keep going and going and going. "Hopefully that can just leak into the rest of the team. I think we have the type of team where we can influence each other, to push each other, to go for more." Coach Sarina Wiegman and teammate Beth Mead both paid tribute to Bronze. "Lucy Bronze is just one of a kind. I have never, ever seen this before in my life, and I'm... a very lucky person that I've worked with so many incredible people, incredible football players," Wiegman said. "What defines her is that resilience, that fight." Mead, a second-half substitute, also praised Bronze's performance. "I mean she did it all, and I think Lucy really showed her experience in those moments," Mead said. "She's our most experienced England player, and I think she was one of the players that very much got that determination out of us all today."
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
England go from shambles to euphoria as self-belief somehow sees off Sweden
The Letzigrund looks gorgeous under a pale pastel evening sun. The noise washes over the athletic track where Carl Lewis and Asafa Powell once broke the world record, and where Sweden are now flying out of the blocks and leaving England trailing in their dust. We do not yet know that in many ways this is simply the prologue, that this devastating early two-goal flurry is actually relatively benign in comparison with the carnage that will follow. We do not yet know that Lauren James will end up playing almost an hour in a double pivot. We do not yet know that Lucy Bronze will end up wearing the captain's armband on her wrist and kicking a giant credit card advert. Hannah Hampton, nose still unbloodied, has not the faintest inkling that this will end up being the greatest night of her career. But they all know something. Even if they're not entirely conscious of it. Even as an utterly shambolic England trail Sweden 2-0 and the obituaries for their Euro 2025 campaign are being scribbled, there is a little knot of refusal there, a team with an entirely unwarranted calmness at its core, a team that against all the available visual evidence still trusts that everything is going to work out eventually. Which, after half an hour of Swedish dominance, takes a pretty significant leap of faith. Alessia Russo has barely been able to get into the game. Georgia Stanway is manically scurrying around like a dog at a family barbecue. Jess Carter, based on her chasing and pointing and deathly reluctance to touch the ball, is clearly training for a future career as a referee. OK, so you may not have underestimated Sweden. But you may just have overestimated yourselves. And perhaps this was the inevitable outcome of a build-up focused almost entirely on Sweden's directness and physicality, on the need for England to show 'proper English' qualities. There was no clear plan on the ball, and precious little quality in it in any case: an entire team so absorbed by the grapple that they had forgotten to trust in their technical ability. Sweden, meanwhile, have come with an entirely transparent strategy: funnel the ball right, target England's left-back weakness with long balls over the top and in behind, and simply wait to collect your jackpot. England have no runners from deep, no flying full-backs, no real intention to create overloads, and just the same hopeless balls punted up the channels. Even so, they know something. They know the depth they possess on their bench. They know that they have the back three to fall back on, different combinations and angles of attack. They know they have the legs to last 90 minutes and 120 if necessary. And most of all they know they are up against a team already instinctively beginning to entrench themselves, whose tournament history suggests a certain hard-wired frailty that they can prod and exploit, if only they can take this game deep enough. And so the lateness of Sarina Wiegman's substitutions almost a kind of wilful stubbornness, a blind faith that things would eventually come good, in the absence of any corroborating evidence. The vivid patterns of Chloe Kelly transform England's right flank and the fresh legs of Michelle Agyemang offer a new threat alongside Russo. Bronze, by now suffused with main character energy, pops up at the back post to convert Kelly's cross. Less than two minutes later, Agyemang pounces on Kelly's header to level the game. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Even as Sweden survive to extra time, even as they continue to create chances on the counter, there is an almost irresistible momentum building behind England as penalties approach. Even amid the farce and fragility of that penalty shoot-out, it is Sweden who crumble under the pressure while Bronze, Kelly and Hampton hold their nerve. In a way, you could scarcely hope to see a better example of the power of self-branding in tournament football. England have so often turned up with no more elaborate strategy than simply *being England*, making a virtue of doing just enough, simply hanging in there and trusting in their intrinsic pedigree to see them through. It was a strategy that powered a flawed team all the way through the last World Cup final, and may just be good enough to do so again here. It is slightly trite to conclude that great teams win when playing badly. Perhaps the hallmark of certain great teams is in sensing almost subconsciously when they are allowed to play badly and when they are not, when the level needs to be raised, when the stakes are at their sharpest. It will probably be good enough against Italy; it will probably not be good enough against Spain or France. But for now this curate's egg of a team rolls judderingly, thrillingly, onto its next grand climax.
The Guardian
05-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Ruthless France take advantage of Wiegman's gamble on Lauren James
The hour mark was approaching when Sarina Wiegman rolled the dice or, perhaps more accurately, reached for the comfort blanket. A salvage operation of this scale had not been part of anyone's masterplan, but at least Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly knew exactly how to move the dial at a European Championship. They were the history makers at Wembley in England's most recent appearance on this stage; if it was going to be anyone, it surely had to be them. There were to be no heroics this time, even if Selma Bacha's late clearance was ultimately all that came between Wiegman's players and a draw. That statement is, in itself, illusory because the manager must face questions about her selection here. She had plumped for Lauren James's explosive gifts in the No 10 position, sticking to the claim that the Chelsea forward was ready to ramp up her recovery from injury, but the call backfired badly. England were misshapen and leggy where it mattered; the game simply got away from them and so, with another ill-conceived step against the Netherlands, could their Euro 2025 campaign. Another dreamy Swiss summer's day found its culmination in Letzigrund, a low-slung bowl whose prominence as an athletics arena does not diminish its appeal. It felt like tournament football by numbers: a sunny exoticism in the air as England shirts mingled with French colours, along with a sprinkling of local representation, while the masted summit of Uetliberg gazed over to the south. Wiegman rubbed her hands together as England walked out for the anthems and who, at the point, could have felt anything but the same tingle of anticipation? Debate about her decisions and, particularly, treatment of absent senior players had hung over the buildup but the camp had felt positive and bright since their arrival on Monday. There are plenty in this squad who have the muscle memory of winners. James's inclusion was by some distance the main talking point. The hamstring she injured in April was deemed up to the challenge posed by a physical France; few others on show this month can strike a ball like James, or provide the explosive moment of inspiration and incision that rips the tightest of encounters asunder. Wiegman felt the chance was worth taking; a full-tilt James could set the tone in the most obvious heavyweight clash of this group stage. Perhaps she would think twice next time. England started fiercely enough and should have led when James unleashed that right foot inside the box but fired over. In those early moments she was everywhere, drifting wide and helping overload the left-back Bacha. Had Alessia Russo's 16th minute piece of opportunism not been overturned by the video assistant referee (VAR), perhaps they would have pulled clear. Instead they were swamped from thereon, rarely threatening until Keira Walsh injected a late urgency that had been painfully absent. England did not have the legs, nous or numbers to combat a French midfield three that seized control after those early wobbles. It is a time-honoured observation that France have historically underachieved by, consciously or not, prioritising individualism over the tenets of assembling a competent unit. This time they were admirably connected throughout. Meanwhile Walsh and Georgia Stanway were frequently left exposed by a wandering James, who perhaps lacked the match sharpness to get up and down and was guilty of overelaborating in deep positions. They were outnumbered by their opponents, for whom the captain Sakina Karchaoui was superb. Stanway has endured well-documented injury issues of her own, winning her race to Switzerland after knee surgery in January but looking noticeably low on rhythm. In hindsight Wiegman's bet on not one, but two players with fitness concerns in the engine room came to look foolhardy. A hungry, athletic, slick France were unlikely pass up on such a gift. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion France's appetite for the battle was summed up by the crunching tackle, hard but perfectly fair, that Maëlle Lakrar left on Russo in the run-up to their decisive second goal. Sandy Baltimore, one of the speed merchants who bothered England all night, finished off the move but they had been found wanting in a key duel. The trend continued until those dying moments when the kitchen sink came out: this was a curiously flat and sloppy display all round, their timing out of sync and intensity only surfacing in bursts. When Leah Williamson steamed in on Karchaoui midway through the second half, both players briefly left in a heap but unscathed, at least it suggested an awareness of what had been missing. They must discover it in time for what looks, effectively, to be an early knockout tie against the Netherlands on Wednesday. A positive reading might be that England were sharpened up here: given the jolt reigning champions sometimes need. A defeat on opening night can define a summer's work positively. But if the watching Thomas Tuchel, the England men's manager who has found himself under scrutiny, sought information here about the secret sauce that cooks up trophy parades in London he will have been frustrated. England, James and Wiegman were hamstrung by a gamble whose ramifications may be severe.
Daily Mail
25-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Women's Euros ticket sales 'mirroring men's tournament' - with over 500,000 sold ahead of kick-off next month
Ticket sales for the upcoming Women's European Championship in Switzerland have already come close to matching those of Euro 2022 before a ball has even been kicked – and, according to industry figures, the ticket acquisition data is 'mirroring what you would see from a men's Euros'. Just over 500,000 tickets have already been sold for this summer's tournament, compared to the 575,000 sold during the Lionesses' successful campaign on home soil three years ago. It's a monumental figure given several factors – particularly the smaller appetite for football in Switzerland compared to the UK, and the fact that the stadiums themselves are smaller. England's first game against France next Saturday – the fourth best-selling fixture so far – is being held at Letzigrund, a stadium with a capacity of 30,000. In comparison, their opening group-stage match at Euro 2022 took place at Old Trafford, where 68,871 were in attendance. Matt Drew, who oversees business development at Viagogo, the leading ticketing marketplace, revealed that only 15 per cent of ticket sales have been for the showpiece final at Basel's St Jakob-Park. This reflects a more even distribution of purchases compared to the 2022 event, where a 'disproportionate' number of tickets were concentrated on the final. Drew said: 'In England in 2022, 87,000 people went to the final. So that had a really significant impact on total ticket sales. They're going to beat that number this year with smaller venues. What that tells you is that there's a much more significant spread of attendance across the games. 'We're seeing a huge amount of interest in the opening matchday, the opening game, and the other one on that day, and obviously, just for the other big group-stage games throughout the tournament. It's a sign of the considerable maturity of the event. The ticket acquisition data is mirroring what you would see from a men's Euros or a mature event. 'It's a sign of tremendous progress in the space and the fact that the growth of women's football is being driven by fans going to games.'
