England’s Euro-winning head coach, Sarina Wiegman has attributed the success of her team in the European Women Championship 2022 to hard work and overwhelming support from fans.
The England Lionesses won the tournament at the extra time after beating Germany 2-1 to prevent the latter from clinching their 9th European Championship title.
Goals from substitutes, Ella Toone in the 62nd minute and Chloe Kelly’s 110-minute, gave the England Lionesses a vital win after Lina Magull cancelled Toone’s opener in 79-minute at the Wembley final.on Sunday.
In a post-match interview, Wiegman said the tournament has had a great impact on women in society.
She expressed that the English women are not aware of what they have done in winning the tourney after putting on such an incredible performance.
Wiegman, during her speech, underlined the role the fans played and commended them for sticking with the team all along.
“This tournament has done so much for the game but also for women in society,” she said.
“I don’t think we’ve really realised what we’ve done. Over the whole tournament, we’ve had so much support from our fans. We did an incredible job and I’m so proud of my team,” Wiegman commended.
She noted that to motivate the team, she had to bring in some calibre of players whose contributions would stimulate the squad to achieve greatness.
Wiegman, “During our preparation for the Euros we bought in some players that played in ‘71 – those women were the trailblazers for the next generation, as now these players will be. We should always remember the ones who came before us.”
Read Also: Edo pledges better opportunities for youths
She added that women’s football has fast developed making it uneasy to win it and she opined that the same effect will be experienced in the world cup.
“The development of this game has been so fast. It’s not easy to win this tournament. And it will be the same at the World Cup too.
“But now it’s time to party, then we’ll have some time off and then try to qualify for the World Cup,” Wiegman said.
Furthermore, she applauded the extra-time goal scored by Kelly to hand England the victory revealing that the player was plagued by injury when she made the squad list.
England Lionesses manager added: “What’s really nice for her personally is that she had such a difficult injury then she made it into the squad and then she scores this goal – for her and her journey, this is incredible. A very, very special moment and I’m happy for her.”
However, she stressed that the players were given the privilege to make decisions as against being constrained to take orders.
Click on The Trumpet and follow us on our Twitter page for more:
