When Chloe Kelly scrambled home England’s winner against Germany in the Euro 2022 final last July, Sarina Wiegman achieved a feat only dreamed of since Sir Geoff Hurst’s stunning hat-trick against the same opponents at the same venue in 1966: she brought football home.
Since succeeding Phil Neville as the Lionesses’s coach in September 2021, the Dutchwoman, 53, has barely put a foot wrong, winning 28 of her 35 games in charge, drawing just six and losing only once: a chastening 2-0 friendly defeat to Australia in Brentford in April that may actually have served as a timely reality check ahead of this summer’s Women’s World Cup in the Matildas’ backyard.
