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France 24
2 days ago
- Sport
- France 24
England's remarkable Euro 2025 success a triumph for 'incredible' Wiegman
The Dutch coach has now firmly established herself as one of the greatest in the women's game. The Lionesses came from behind against Spain to draw 1-1 after extra time before winning Sunday's final 3-1 on penalties in Basel, exacting revenge for their defeat in the World Cup decider in 2023. England cannot claim to have been the most accomplished tournament winners, having started by losing 2-1 to France. That was followed by a quarter-final against Sweden in which they were 2-0 down with 12 minutes to go before roaring back to equalise and eventually win on penalties. Then came the semi-final against Italy, when Wiegman's team required a 96th-minute Michelle Agyemang equaliser to force extra time and Chloe Kelly scored the winner as a shoot-out loomed. England won the trophy despite being ahead for a grand total of one minute across three knockout ties, and Wiegman admitted: "This is the most chaotic and ridiculous tournament we have played. "Of course we have players who have talent, and the togetherness of this team is really, really incredible," she added. "The players think they can win by any means, and we just never, ever give up." Regardless of how they did it, Wiegman's Lionesses are the first England senior team, men's or women's, to lift a major trophy on foreign soil. Three in a row They were hit in the run-up to the tournament by the retirements of goalkeeper Mary Earps and Fran Kirby, along with Chelsea captain Millie Bright's decision to make herself unavailable. But England's success was achieved in large part thanks to their strength in depth, with the quality available to Wiegman on the bench helping them change the course of numerous games. If England do not have the same clearly defined way of playing as Aitana Bonmati's Spain, they do have a brilliant manager. The Lionesses had never won any major tournament before Wiegman arrived in 2021, and now they have won back-to-back Euros while also reaching a first Women's World Cup final. They have rarely done it easily, with just three wins out of nine in major tournament knockout matches under the Dutchwoman coming inside 90 minutes. But her influence is obvious, given the way England's players speak about her, and Wiegman's record is remarkable. She has been to five consecutive finals between European Championships and World Cups, and has won three straight Euros having led her native Netherlands to victory in 2017 before taking charge of England. "She is bloody amazing. She is an incredible woman," said Kelly, who scored the winning penalty against Spain. "We should all be so grateful for what she has done for this country. She has taken the women's game, not just in England but the whole women's game, to another level." Record attendance Thoughts will soon turn to what the future might hold for the winners and England will switch their attentions to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, with qualifying starting early next year. English FA chief Mark Bullingham said last week that they were determined to retain Wiegman, whose contract runs through to the World Cup. Assuming they qualify, England will hope to be among the leading contenders along with Spain and Olympic champions the United States, coached by England's Emma Hayes. On the whole, the tournament in Switzerland confirmed the growing popularity of women's football, with the total attendance of 657,291 the highest ever at a European Championship -- even more than in England in 2022, despite over 87,000 attending that year's final at Wembley. It also confirmed England and Spain as the leading forces, off the back of Arsenal defeating Barcelona in the Women's Champions League final. But there was plenty of drama throughout the competition, and impressive performances elsewhere, notably from Italy in reaching their first semi-final since 1997. Wiegman is optimistic the competition will have a lasting impact in helping the women's game grow across the continent. "How I have experienced this tournament is that the level went up again, the intensity of the games went through the roof," said the 55-year-old. © 2025 AFP
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
England's rotten penalties against Sweden stink of poor planning, writes IAN HERBERT
Anyone can miss a penalty in the heat of the big occasion. Stuart Pearce and Gareth Southgate are testament to how it can feel. But nine misses out of 14 in one shootout? The sight of Grace Clinton's terribly weak connection after Sweden goalkeeper Jennifer Falk had ballooned a kick over the bar turned England 's shootout against Sweden into one of the worst ever at an international tournament. It was not a glorious advert for the women's game. In the aftermath, there were no material explanations from England's players as to why four of their players managed to miss and Beth Mead offered the flat observation that the team had practised every day and 'sometimes it doesn't go to plan'. But this reasoning did not account for what appeared to be a scandalous lack of preparation. We are told everything is joined up when it comes to England's teams — men and women — with marginal gains disseminating out from one cognitive core at St George's Park. But when it came to the most critical moment for the national women's team since their World Cup final in Sydney two years ago, the learning was sorely lacking. There has always been a little resistance to the men's game being brought into an assessment of the women's. As Lionesses manager at the 2019 World Cup, Phil Neville would bring his Manchester United hinterland into the conversation and cite Sir Alex Ferguson. Some frowned on this and on him. But now is the moment to point out how England's men have set an example for shootouts which Sarina Wiegman should have borrowed from. When penalties became a source of fear for the men, Southgate applied his mind to taking out the fear. He set up an 18-month taskforce to tackle the reasons for a hoodoo which brought six defeats out of seven. It was about 'controlling the controllables', with a huddle before the shootout limited to the takers, each player assigned a 'buddy' to welcome them back into the pack post-kick and — critically — players being drilled in not rushing. In the shootout against the Swiss at last year's Euros, when England scored all five of their kicks, the average wait time for each penalty was 5.2 seconds, compared with Switzerland's 1.3. The evidence of Thursday's England kicks in Zurich was that the work Southgate undertook for the men had gone to waste. Wiegman's penalty takers' average wait time — the gap from the whistle to the start of the run-up — was 3.6 seconds, with scorers Alessia Russo (5sec), Chloe Kelly (7.6) and Lucy Bronze (4.1) showing it pays to take your time. Lauren James allowed herself just one second. Mead took 1.5sec before missing, Alex Greenwood an extraordinary 0.8sec before fluffing her kick and Clinton 5sec. The choice and order of kickers leaves Wiegman with more questions to answer. Two of the experienced takers, Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone, had been substituted on 70 minutes, with England still trailing 2-0. So in sixth was Clinton, who had never taken a penalty before for England. Kelly, England's best player from the spot, was curiously only fifth, scoring England's best effort. The typically insouciant Wiegman provided no sense that England's problems would be a focus before Tuesday's semi-final against Italy in Geneva. She actually seemed to imply the ball had been a problem. 'Of course I was concerned,' she said. 'I know the players are capable of taking a penalty because they're really good. You can talk about the reasons — the fatigue, the ball, the whole picture of it, which is really hard.' But 'no', she replied to the question of whether extra work and thought were now needed. 'We have trained this. We know what players are capable of and we move on. Of course we prepare for a penalty shootout, because that's always a scenario, but I will not make it a big point.' The power of Bronze's decisive kick raised the question of why she, such an experienced player, had not been among the first five and was behind young Clinton. She stripped away strapping on her left leg and smashed her kick down the middle, later revealing she had been watching the Sweden keeper and seen her diving early each time. 'Statistically in shootouts it's risky for goalkeepers to stand still, so I thought, 'Go down the middle'.' Like most aspects of England's shootout, Bronze's logic seemed to have been thought out on the hoof. If the Swedes had not been even worse than England, the inquisition would have been far more severe.
