Women’s European Championship 2022: England, Sweden, Germany and France book semi-final places
The Women’s European Championship 2022 continues to entertain and amaze as teams battled each other to reach the semi-final stage of the tournament. England, Sweden, Germany and France, who all won their groups, beat Spain, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands respectively to advance from the quarter-finals.
ENGLAND 2-1 SPAIN
Given that England had averaged close to five goals per game during the Euro group stage while Spain struggled to make their possession dominance count – all while conceding goals to opponents – you’d be forgiven for thinking that England would walk away with a win here. But Spain showed their quality and stifled England in the first half by limiting them to just one shot.
Midfield champion Aitana Bonmati and industrious winger Mariona Caldentey lead from the front and disrupted England’s practiced playing pattern. But for all their possession dominance, Spain couldn’t find the cutting edge in the final third.
That changed in the second half when young Athenea del Castillo was brought on in place of Marta Cardona at half time. The young winger took over Rachel Daly after a lovely teasing and measured pass from Bonmati and set up center forward Esther Gonzalez. 1-0 to Spainiards!
A goal down and approaching the hour mark, England coach Sarina Wiegman rattled off the changes with super sub Alessia Russo coming on for veteran Ellen White, tournament marksman Beth Mead replaced by Chloe Kelly and Ella Toone coming on for Fran Kirby. This gamble paid off immediately as Kelly and Russo proved to be better shops than Mead and White. Russo in particular established a physical presence that troubled Spain’s back line.
Formerly part of Chelsea’s development squad, Russo has the best goals per 90 in this tournament so far, showing how well she has managed to influence games from the bench. While England managed to build up some more pressure and create attempts on goal, an equalizer did not appear to be in the cards.
That is until Wiegman made a maverick move. She took over for Alex Greenwood for the struggling Rachel Daly, allowing England to temporarily switch to a back three while Bright joined Russo up top. This move paid off almost immediately as England scored just a couple of minutes later. Hamp’s deep cross now had two targets, Bright and Russo, at the back post and this overload led to Spain losing the aerial duel to Russo. Her header was swallowed up by the onrushing Ella Toone, who broke home and rolled away in celebration after finding the equalizer 1-1 in normal time.
This took the game to extra time and England reverted to a back four but this time their fresh legs made the difference against Spain’s midfield. More turnovers were created by England’s pressing and it was from one such fall that Stanway created a historic moment.
Spain lost the ball on the edge of their defensive third, allowing Keira Walsh to release Stanway into space. Stanway galloped into space as the Spanish back line continued to retreat and unleashed a thunderbolt for the ages to make it 2-1 in extra time.
Her goal proved to be enough for England to advance to the semi-finals, where they face Sweden.
In the tournament preview I talked about how deep England’s bench is and so far Wiegman has taken full advantage of it. But not enough has been said about how brilliant Millie Bright has been at the back. Her distribution and play from the back has been excellent and she hasn’t put a single foot wrong defensively, not to mention establishing aerial dominance in and around the box. She was named player of the match in this game and deservedly so.
Perspective: The beauty of the knockout stages is that even if the first 60 minutes don’t go your way, you can stretch it to last another 60 and get it right.
perspective: At #WEURO2022 3 teams have scored 2 goals in 3 shots on goal or fewer. Two of these occurred against Spain. pic.twitter.com/qGbr17RU2x
— The Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) 20 July 2022
Spain will be disappointed not to have done more when they were on top and will look back on the tournament feeling quite unlucky, both with injuries and the way they conceded goals. However, that should not take anything away from Aitana Bonmati and Mariona Caldentey, who both showed their immense quality throughout.
Bonmati plays as you would expect the best Spanish game makers to play. Silky on the ball, excellent vision and impeccable selection and passing technique. She has really announced herself on the international stage.
Germany 2-0 Austria, France 1-0 Netherlands and Sweden 1-0 Belgium
Germany have been steamrolling past their opponents, regardless of their quality, since the start of the tournament and have established themselves as the clear favorites for a record European Championship win. They comfortably beat Austria in the quarter-finals and have not conceded a single goal in the tournament so far.
Germany have the second fewest PPDA in the tournament along with the best defensive record and have stifled opponents with ease. They have faced very few shots and even fewer shots on target. Their forward line is clicking well and the defensive coverage of Lena Oberdorf in midfield creates a very secure platform for their creative play.
However, Germany’s opponent France is not to be taken lightly. They suffocated the Netherlands in the quarter-finals peppering the goal with shots and somehow failed to score in normal time, thanks to some wasteful finishing and heroics from the Dutch goalkeeper.
But France’s persistence finally paid off in the first half of extra time as the Netherlands conceded a penalty. Chelsea new signing Eve Perisset stepped up to the plate and made no mistake to take France past the quarter-final stage of the European Championship for the first time in their history. Although they lost a star striker in Marie-Antoinette Katoto, they still showed enough quality in the match against the Netherlands.
England’s opponents Sweden were equally frustrated until the very last minute of the full 90 by Belgium. Belgium’s counter-attack resisting wave after wave of Swedish attacks was a sight to behold.
It took Sweden 33 attempts to finally break through and score. Belgium goalkeeper Nicky Evrard had the tournament of her life as she stood strong in goal and is perhaps the biggest reason why Belgium advanced so far in the tournament.
Based on the quality of shots on target, the ‘average’ goalkeeper would have been expected to concede nine more goals than Nicky Evrard did for Belgium at #WEURO2022.
Her blocked goals total (8.9) is three times higher than the next best in the finals: Mary Earps (3). pic.twitter.com/gD8oIbJn67
— The Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) 23 July 2022
Sweden have at times failed to convince in this tournament but have always done just enough to progress, despite covid spreading through their camp and making key players unavailable for selection. They will face England at home and the resilience they have shown so far in the tournament will be tested to the limit.
They will have two fewer days to prepare for the semi-final than England and hope that the players who have been affected by covid will return in time for that game.
One thing to note is that Chelsea will have at least one winner and one runner-up returning to their pre-season as all four teams in the semi-finals have Blues players as part of their contingent.
Good luck to everyone involved, and may the best team win!!!
CONCACAF Women’s Championship
On the other side of the world, Canadian internationals Jessie Fleming and Kadeisha Buchanan lost to the United States in the final of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship.
Fleming finished the tournament as one of the top scorers with 3 goals to his name from midfield and was named as part of the tournament’s best XI. The U.S. demanded payback after losing to Canada in the Olympics in the semifinals last year, with Jessie Fleming scoring from the spot in the 75th minute. Alex Morgan scored from the spot in the 77th minute to seal their 9th CONCACAF Women’s Championship title. The symmetry is almost poetic.
Despite that, both teams also secured qualification for the upcoming Women’s World Cup.
Ex-Chelsea player Drew Spence (also part of the tournament’s best XI, along with Fleming) took the bronze medal as Jamaica beat Costa Rica after extra time, thanks to a goal from Manchester Cityis Bunny Shaw. Jamaica had previously lost to Canada in the semi-finals, where Fleming scored the opener.