After the England Lionesses beat Sweden 4-0 in the Euro 2022 semi-finals, Sarina Wiegman praised her team’s ability to find a way to win. The Lionesses overcame an uncomfortable opening half hour and advanced to the EURO 2022 final.
“I’m very proud,” Wiegman said. “I think again the team found a way. We didn’t start that well. They got a big chance in the first minute, and then we were struggling a bit by the way they played defensively.
“But we did better and better and the players on the pitch just found the solutions. But we played too sloppy and we played them in their strengths because they were so strong on the counter attack so they got a couple of chances. And after that we scored a goal and that helped a lot.”
“I think that’s what we already did after the group stage,” Wiegman said of managing the situation of a final. “Because we know when you come to the knockout stage and you don’t win, you’re out. So then you play three finals; you put ‘quarter’ in front of it, but actually it’s a final.
“So we managed expectations and how we’re going to approach things, so we’re not going to do anything different from that, only now it’s the final and it’s going to be a full Wembley, and that’s pretty amazing.
“We want to inspire the nation, I think that’s what we’re doing. And we want to make a difference. At the end the whole country’s proud of us.”
After losing in the semifinals of each of the previous three major tournaments, England was able to break their recent hoodoo and advance to the final four thanks to this victory.
