“You asked: ‘Are you ready to write history?’ I think this is history,” Sarina Wiegman declared. She was right, too. This was the biggest win in European Championship semi-final history, in fact, whether you consult the record books of the men’s or the women’s game. Rarely does a team come this far into any tournament and go home with a nose as bloody as Sweden’s was by full time at Bramall Lane. Rarely does a team reach a major final with a display of the control, authority and outright domination demonstrated by England.
Rarely does an England team play that well full stop, in fact. Never mind the comparisons to the men’s national side, inevitable though they are, and their many, equally inevitable disappointments down the years.
