England haven’t won a football title since the 1966 World Cup – now the women could end their dry spell. In the semifinals of the European Championship against Sweden, the Lionesses can hardly be stopped, in the end it is 4:0 for the furiously playing hosts.
The English footballers fulfilled their big dream at Wembley on a perfect evening. The Lionesses won their semi-finals at the home European Championship against Sweden brilliantly 4-0 (1-0) and are in the final on Sunday in London’s stadium temple in front of almost 90,000 fans. The euphoria is huge. The final opponent will be determined on Wednesday in a duel between Germany and France.
Beth Mead gave coach Sarina Wiegmann’s side, who were struggling to get started, the lead on 34 minutes in front of a crowd of 28,624 in Sheffield. It was Mead’s sixth goal of the tournament. Lucy Bronze made it 2-0 (48′) before Alessia Russo (68′) finally transformed the legendary Stadion Bramall Lane into a party zone with a sensational back-heel goal. “Football is coming home,” chanted the fans, and Fran Kirby (76th) even followed up.
England, who have been eliminated in the last three consecutive major tournaments in the semi-finals, are in the final of the European Championship for the third time after 1984 and 2009. On Sunday, the “Lionesses” want to end the untitled time for the motherland of football since the men’s World Cup triumph in 1966.
England, now unbeaten in 19 matches, started with the same line-up as they did against Spain in the quarter-finals. There were two changes for the Swedes compared to the Netherlands game. A new one almost gave the lead after 22 seconds, but Sofia Jakobsson was denied by the strongly reacting Mary Earps. Sweden remained courageous afterwards and had very good chances thanks to Stina Blackstenius and Fridolina Rolfö.
The Lionesses, on the other hand, were under a lot of pressure, they acted nervously at first and made a lot of mistakes against the early attacking Swedes. The 1-0 was all the more surprising, in which Mead coldly exploited the first confusion in Sweden’s defence. The hit had a liberating effect.
England now ruled the game and once again proved extremely efficient with a Bronze header. Lauren Hemp missed the decision in front of the empty goal, this made up for the substitute Russo. Sweden had nothing more to oppose.