Key events
Lucy Bronze has become a kind of totem of the Lionesses’ cussedness and spirit during this tournament, and the experienced full-back has been characteristically bullish in the aftermath of last night’s win, as Suzanne Wrack reports:
Lucy Bronze has said England have “nothing to prove” after reaching a third successive major tournament final with a dramatic extra-time win over Italy despite some unconvincing performances.
“Do we have something to prove? Not really,” the Chelsea right-back said. “That’s people from the outside thinking that teams have to win every single game. We’ve done six consecutive semi-finals, three consecutive finals, who else has done that? Nobody. [The current] Spain and Germany are fantastic teams but even they haven’t managed that feat.”
Pep up your morning with some scenes of boxpark and outside-stadium frenzy …
So what about tonight’s game? The respective odds on Spain (1-2) and Germany (9-2) tell us plenty about what’s predicted, but Spain’s women have never beaten Germany competitively, most recently losing to them at last year’s Olympics and in the group stage at the 2022 Euros.
And the nagging sense remains that Spain haven’t been fully tested yet, while Germany are growing in resilience and confidence. Still, I’d back them to win. If anything, Spain have added cutting edge to their World Cup-winning side two years ago, with Claudia Pina (a player of the tournament contender) and Esther González adding an extra sharpness, Alexia Putellas back near her best and Aitana Bonmatí as imperious as ever. But they’re up against a goalkeeper who can do stuff like this – as well as in-form attackers such as Klara Bühl and Jule Brand – so who knows?
Now for something completely different: this week’s Knowledge has dropped, looking at long gaps between top-flight derbies, odd trophies, players scoring more for their countries than clubs and more.
Some reactions from within the England camp. Sarina Wiegman has described this run as “like a movie.I feel relieved, happy, it feels a bit surreal making a final again but we’re here, and now we need to recover a bit”. Asked what the secret to her tournament success is, she replied: “I’m the lucky one to work with so many good people, good players, good staff, but I also I think I’m always myself.”
The teenager of the hour Michelle Agyemang heaped praise on the squad atmosphere. Her heroics, she said, were rooted in “the character of this team and my teammates.They have been so supportive because I’ve only been here a short amount of time, but every single person has taken me in. But I Didn’t think it would be this dramatic oh my goodness.”
Her fellow goalscorer Chloe Kelly reflected that she “should have done better with that penalty to be honest this team shows so much fight, resilience and talent, and it’s so important the changes Sarina makes, it’s just great management … I’m so proud to be English right now”.
Nick Ames was in Geneva, which looked a picture yesterday, soaking up the atmosphere among England’s fans.
Legends are made on nights such as this. England’s travelling supporters celebrated deliriously long after the final whistle; huge sections of the venue had already dissolved into a mush of limbs when Agyemang struck. Those fans will be able to march proudly, expectantly, one last time before the tournament decider in Basel.
Hundreds of them had assembled at a fanzone near Lancy-Pont-Rouge station to take the mile-long walk towards the stadium, counting down before setting off at 6.45pm to trumpets and beating drums. There had been plenty to entertain them while they waited, including an impromptu limbo dancing competition between tied-together English and Italian flags. This being Geneva, food stalls selling chips and hot dogs were joined by another offering oysters, salmon tartare and moules frites.
Preamble
Greetings all. Get up to much last night? I’m sure you did, particularly if “sitting on the sofa, fretting” constitutes “much”. So, England and Sarina Wiegman are in yet another final. How they got there I don’t know, how they got there I don’t care etc, as the song goes. Yep, it was another nailbiter, where persistence and pressure in the end overcame Italy’s tactical nous and canny gameplan.
Were England lucky? Possibly, but they didn’t burgle the win in quite the way they did against a demonstrably superior Sweden, and a personal view is that Wiegman’s side just about deserved it, for persistence and composure as well as a couple of properly enterprising spells of pressure at the start of each normal-time half. Jonathan Liew, someone with whom I rarely disagree about anything, has a more critical (and knowledgable) perspective, mind.
Anyway, this blog won’t only be looking back on last night but looking ahead to tonight’s intriguing second semi-final between tournament favourites Spain and a Germany whose progress has not been dissimilar to England’s. Another rearguard looms against the best possession-based passing side in the world.
Anyway, feel free to mail in thoughts, predictions, tactical insights and more.
