It’s finally home
Women weren’t allowed to play the last time England won a major tournament over 56 years ago: now the Lionesses have inspired a nation, packed out Wembley stadium and 'football's coming home' finally rang out as it should.
Plan B was really part of the original plan all along
When does Part II of Plan A become Plan B? The strength of Sarina Wiegman's bench means she was always going to turn to the likes of Alessia Russo, Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly. But those changes, just before and after hour mark, don’t make it any less merit worthy, or any easier to negate.
Toone's run onto Keira Walsh's through pass was perfectly timed and the manner in which she clanged her shot against the underside of the crossbar even more satisfying. Kelly’s extra time scrambled strike secured part three. It all fell into place.
Sarina Wiegman: Dutch-ess of winning home tournaments
Revolutionised since September, a ten-month process of complete transition is underway.
Just like in 2017, she formed a tightknit squad to play free-flowing expressive football, translating it expertly across the North Sea to England’s true golden generation.
Weigman was robust in her squad selection, formulating a plan that had killer blows, an abundance of heart and the wherewithal to steam all the way to crowning glory.
Ahead of 2023’s World Cup, England will be a force to be reckoned with.
Highest profile
A record crowd of 87,192 at Wembley duly confirmed the fact this has been the biggest Women's Euros ever, taking the total attendance beyond half a million, more than double that of Netherlands 2017.
Now comes the tricky part: how can the women's game sustain mass spectator interest as the WSL season starts in September? Using the Lionesses players to promote their domestic games on social media is one easy score but the clubs need to focus greater resources into their women's teams' PR now.
Battle for golden boot settled.
Both starting and ending the day of a stalemate of six goals, Alexandra Popp and Beth Mead didn’t have the headlines as they would have liked. Whilst Mead had her glides past Giulia Gwinn on the left, she never really had clear sights at goal before coming off early in the second half with a knock.
She made it longer than Popp, however, who aggravated an injury in the warmup to cruelly continue her curse in the competition that has stretched back to 2013. Their top scorer was unsurprisingly a heavy loss so late in their preparation
Her absence would have been to the slight but brief relief of Millie Bright and Leah Williamson, who contained her replacement Lea Schüller until her second half substitution.
