Sarina Wiegman says the Lionesses feel invincible ahead of their Euros showdown with Germany.
And the England boss believes they will “inspire” the nation and leave a lasting legacy for the women’s game by beating the eight-time champions at Wembley. The Lionesses face English football’s oldest enemy at a sold-out Wembley on Sunday with a record television audience expected and Wiegman insists her players are convinced they can win their first major trophy.
Wiegman said: “I think they have been mentally strong already. I just think now they believe, they truly believe that we can beat anyone if we just do some things really well. We have already shown, we have already proved ourselves that we can.
“It’s not just words. You need some behaviour too, to help each other. I think the team has done that so well. They’ve developed some confidence and then you can see the goal. We just have to bring the level high and score goals.
“Mentally, it’s making the right football decisions in the game and having the right qualities also because it starts with the quality of the players. I think we have already made a difference and been an inspiration for the country and that’s really nice but we want more. You know when you win a major tournament that it would really make a difference, that would make me really proud.
“I don’t think further than that because I’m just really focused on the game and most of the time you don’t realise, you probably realise 15 years later.” Germany are already the most successful team in women’s Euros history and it will be a repeat of the 1966 men's World Cup final. But Wiegman insists it does not matter who they are playing and their history.
She added: “We approach this game exactly the same as every other game we have played. You know when it’s a final you are going to play against the best opponent you can imagine. And that's Germany. We don’t talk about the rivalry between England and Germany, we want to show badly how good we are and play our best game.
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“There's so much eagerness in this team to win. And so much resilience. We want, we want so badly to show again, we are the best, to play play our best game. That's what we've been trying to do all the time. And then hopefully, that will bring us to win. That's basically where we're at. And then on top of that, we talk about players but not history, it is the here and now.
“I don’t know what the perfect game is, maybe because whoever was in front of us, we want to beat and this is the final and we just really want to win the final. Germany wants to win the final too, of course.”
