England won the inaugural edition of the Arnold Clark Cup after beating Germany
(Picture: Getty Images)On the evidence of last night, the biggest challenge Sarina Wiegman faces ahead of the European Championship this summer is handling the weight of expectation.
Excitement had already been building ahead of a home tournament and winning the Arnold Clark Cup, beating Germany in England for the first time in the process, has only seen that grow further.
Before last night, England held Olympic champions Canada and Euros favourites Spain to draws to stretch their unbeaten run since Wiegman was appointed to nine matches.
That is no mean feat when you consider that since losing to the United States in the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, England had lost all seven of their matches against sides ranked in the world’s top 10. In the past week, they have gone unbeaten against three of them.
The Arnold Clark Cup was always deemed a true litmus test of where England stand under Wiegman. Their previous matches under her consisted of six 2023 World Cup qualifying wins in which they scored 53 unanswered goals.
Canada, Germany and Spain provided proper competition and the fact England went unbeaten against them only adds to belief that this summer’s Euros could be special.
All of England’s games are likely to sell out, including their opener against Austria at Old Trafford, and the pressure on players will be like nothing they’ve experienced before.
It is why the FA are taking lessons from how the men’s team coped with being hosts at last year’s Euros. They are also leaning on Wiegman’s experience after she led the Netherlands to glory as hosts of the 2017 tournament.
There should be no shortage of belief, though, as this England squad have shown over the past week how they could go all the way.
Millie Bright looks imperious at centre-back, Leah Williamson is thriving in a new midfield role next to Keira Walsh and, in Fran Kirby and Lauren Hemp, the Lionesses have two genuine match-winners.
They played key roles in last night’s late goals against Germany, with Hemp setting up the first and Kirby scoring late on to secure a 3-1 win.
“When I came in I knew the England squad was very good, but it’s even better than I thought,” said Wiegman.
How good? We will find out this summer.
