“When you get to the final then you are one of the best teams in the tournament,” said the manager. “I think we have a very good team. We are not afraid of anyone. “We had a lot of tests. We got along pretty well. The group stage was relatively easy – it looks easy, but it’s never easy. The game against Spain was tight and close. Sweden looked a bit easier, but we had difficult moments and moments when we dominated and here we are now.” It took a long time for England to reach a major tournament final. The Lionesses last reached a Euro final in 2009, losing 6-2 to Germany. This was Germany’s seventh of eight European titles and England had some serious qualification. Thirteen years later, England go into a final against Germany with a realistic chance of ending their opponents’ 100% record in Euro finals. The pace of change accelerated in 2017 when the FA’s director of women’s football, Sue Campbell, and then chief executive, Martin Glenn, stood in the Bobby Moore Room at Wembley and unveiled an ambitious plan to develop women’s football. football. For the first time since almost 50 years of banning women’s football from all association-affiliated grounds, the FA has apologized for how it wronged the women’s game. Yes, the ban was lifted in 1970 and yes, the FA took control of women’s football from the independent Women’s Association in 1993, but support was limited, gradually. Team GB’s success at the 2012 Olympics and England’s surprise run to the 2015 World Cup semi-finals have helped those clamoring for a few more crumbs off the table to take a small slice of the pie. ‘We know it will be special’: England’s Georgia Stanway in Euro 2022 final – video Five years ago, the FA was even more committed with ambitions to double participation in women’s football, double the audiences for the game, improve the pathway for players and lead England to a major tournament final. The plan was clear: the Lionesses would be competitive through Euro 2021 (postponed to this year due to Covid) and the 2023 World Cup. The semi-final exit from the 2019 World Cup was no surprise. the infrastructure was not deemed sufficiently developed in time for this tournament. “This kind of sounds weird, but building a high-performance system takes time,” Campbell said. “We have great players with huge passion, huge commitment, huge effort, but really building a world-class support system means you have to have all the things like fitness or sports psychology or analysis and they have to be in place. at the right level. It takes time to build these kinds of teams.” The strategy pays off and then some. “So many of the things that we wanted to see and have articulated in this strategy, we’ve now seen come to life,” Campbell said. A new plan has been put in place and the FA is stepping up the game in stride. It is impossible to describe the potential impact of winning a Euro on home soil, but by reaching the final in the impressive way the team did, win or lose, they have changed the state of the game, themselves and attitudes towards women and their participation. in sports in general. England captain Leah Williamson highlighted that on Saturday when she said the tournament not only offered “a change to women’s football but to society in general”. The Lionesses’ journey to this final was a long one. In 2009, 17 players received their first major contracts, with another five playing as full-time professionals in the US. The central contracts were worth £16,000 each over four years. The appointment of Sarina Wiegman as head coach has proved to be “the final piece of the puzzle”, according to Baroness Sue Campbell. Photo: Nigel French/PA On Sunday, the Lionesses are in line for a £55,000 bonus should they triumph. Their faces stare out from billboards and advertisements across the country. In 2009, only the semi-final and the final were broadcast. this time the tournament has been given the full BBC treatment, with every game shown. If England win on Sunday, it will not just be a triumph of the players and coaching staff, it will be a triumph of investment and support. In the likable Wiegman, though, they have “the final piece of the puzzle,” Campbell said. “Coaches before Sarina have done a good job of growing the game, raising the profile of the women’s game, but she is arguably one of the most outstanding coaches I’ve ever worked with and she’s certainly brought a very different level of collaboration, teamwork, tactical awareness, calmness and clarity of purpose. “It is without a doubt, the final piece of the puzzle. When building a high-performance system, it’s like putting a puzzle together. It doesn’t all happen at once – you have to do it piece by piece. It’s the final piece for me, and her presence has brought it all together in a way that maybe we didn’t understand until we did.” Wiegman has mixed things up both on and off the field. The audacity of Alessia Russo’s back-heel goal against Sweden was symptomatic of an environment that makes the team play for fun, for each other and without fear. This is exciting to watch. For Williamson, enjoying the moment will be just as important as trying to shut it out and focus on the game. “There have been times in my career where even when I won, I felt like I lost because I didn’t enjoy the moment,” he said. “The environment we created allowed us to enjoy it and enjoy it with the fans. “I always said, ‘Why not enjoy it?’ We have worked so hard but there is that concentration and composure that is most needed before a final.”
