Inspiration is the word of the month for this summer’s UEFA Women’s European Championship, a whirlwind tournament which seems to break attendance and viewing figure records across the country with each passing match. Although not as widely documented, England, who last night reached the final of the competition for the third time, are once again demonstrating and orchestrating the unifying power of a sport whose trajectory is rapid and thrilling.
England’s first of those three finals was in 1984, when the women’s football landscape was unrecognisable and incomparable to the sport that has captivated families from around the world in recent weeks. It was a two-legged, home-and-away style fixture; the Lionesses first on the receiving end of a 1-0 defeat to Sweden in Gothenburg inflicted by Pia Sundhage, whose iconic playing career has continued into management, winning FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2012. A fortnight later came England’s chance for redemption in the second leg, in hindsight a momentous although unglamorous occasion, with Luton Town’s Kenilworth Town playing host to 2567 dedicated onlookers, England equalling the score in Gothenburg earlier that month to take it to penalties where they eventually fell short.
Fast forward 38 transformational years and it was Sweden again, now ranked second in the world, who England found themselves contesting for a chance at glory with, this time on a stage amplified by a near capacity 28,624 crowd at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, becoming the best-attended semi-final in the competition’s rich history.
