Georgia Stanway says she can feel the country uniting behind England before next week’s Euro 2022 semi-final. Stanway scored the winning goal in England’s quarter-final victory over Spain on Wednesday night, a moment she described as “the greatest of her career”, and revealed that members of the men’s team that reached last summer’s European Championship final have been in touch to offer support and advice.
According to figures released by the BBC, England’s thrilling comeback against the pre-tournament favourites in Brighton was watched by 9.1 million viewers, of whom 7.6 million watched the live coverage on BBC One with another 1.5 million on the internet.
Tuesday’s semi-final against Sweden or Belgium could well break the record television audience for women’s football, set when 11.7 million people watched England’s semi-final defeat to the US at the 2019 World Cup. Nor was this a purely English phenomenon: in Spain almost five million viewers watched the match on the country’s main free-to-air channel, La 1, making it the most-watched programme anywhere in Spain that day.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced that next week’s semi-final would be shown on big screens in Trafalgar Square. According to Stanway, who has been one of England’s players of the tournament, the surge of interest in the team’s progress through Euro 2022 has not gone unnoticed within the squad. “It’s pretty surreal,” said the midfielder, who recently joined Bayern Munich from Manchester City. “But we want as many people on our journey as we can, as many people watching us, supporting us, believing in us.”
One major difference between this and previous England tournament campaigns has been the active and vocal support of their male counterparts, with whom the women’s squad have developed a close bond through sharing facilities at St George’s Park. Harry Maguire and Declan Rice tweeted their congratulations after the Spain game, and Stanway said Rice was one of the players who had sent tips to the squad on how to negotiate the expectations of playing a major tournament on home soil.
“We’ve just had certain messages off Declan Rice and the lads that were involved last year [at Euro 2020],” she said. “They’re giving us tips on momentum, taking it forward. Just supporting us, willing us all the way, saying they’re coming to the next match. We’re definitely a united nation.”
Ella Toone, who scored the equalising goal against Spain six minutes from time, emphasised the significance of public support and vowed that England would put on another show in the semi-final. “Every game we’ve played, the atmosphere has been unbelievable,” she said. “We’re so grateful for the fans that support us whether they’re in the stadium or at home, and we want to keep making them proud. Hopefully we can see everyone’s beers flying around, enjoying the game.”
For all this, England’s players will be keen to maintain their focus before what for many will be the biggest game of their lives. England may have prevailed on Wednesday night but it was a far from flawless performance, with Spain dominating possession for large parts of the game and England’s starting front four struggling to make an impression.
For their head coach, Sarina Wiegman, who has named the same XI in all four of England’s games in the tournament, there will be pressure to make changes for the semi-final, with Alex Greenwood and Alessia Russo challenging Rachel Daly and Ellen White at left-back and centre-forward respectively. But Toone, a second-half substitute against Spain, insisted England’s bench strength was a major asset. “It’s about all 23 players, we’ve said that from the start,” she said. “The substitutes know their role when coming on, and in every game we’ve changed the game in a positive way.”
• This article was amended on 22 July 2022 to correct the spelling of Georgia Stanway’s first name in the main photo caption.
