Hemp and bronze stretch Sweden to the breaking point on the way to England’s victory | Women’s European Championship 2022
Sports quiz aficionados will no doubt soon be asked what Edmonton, Enschede, Lyon and Sheffield have in common?
The answer, obvious to any Lionesses fan, is that they hosted England’s four consecutive semi-finals in the last two WC and EC tournaments.
If long stretches of the road from Canada’s prairies to the eastern Netherlands, on through southern France and back home to South Yorkshire on Tuesday proved delightfully straightforward, a journey that began in 2015 has also had its share of setbacks.
The last time England were in a European Championship semi-final – in 2017 when Mark Sampson’s side lost to Sarina Wiegman’s Dutch side in Enschede – a security scare led to their team bus taking a detour on the way to the match and arriving uncomfortably late.
Five years later, things went considerably smoother with Wiegman’s England squad flying north on a private charter jet from their Euro 2022 base in south-west London.
Cruising, briefly, above the clouds, these players would not have been human if their thoughts had not turned to the £55,000 per woman bonuses the Football Association had offered them for winning Euro 2022.
The idea of a cash lump sum that could change their respective positions on the property ladder for the better within tantalizing reach might just have produced an extra layer of pressure. That was perhaps manifested by a hellish start where only Mary Earp’s outstretched boot prevented Sweden from being a goal within 30 seconds after Keira Walsh was uncharacteristically caught in central midfield.
Although Beth Mead quickly nodded a decent chance wide, Walsh’s room for maneuver from deep was severely limited by tight marking while Wiegman’s right-back Lucy Bronze was on more than one occasion dangerously out of position.
With the bronze struggling to answer the first-half questions her new Barcelona clubmate Fridolina Rolfö asked her and Kosovare Asllani constantly tightening the tournament around Walsh, Peter Gerhardsson’s side sensed an opportunity.
The excellent Earps, who had by far his busiest night of the tournament and more than justified her once mildly controversial status as Wiegman’s first-choice goalkeeper, saved well from Arsenal’s Stina Blackstenius before the same forward nodded against the bar.
Admittedly, England had their attacking moments – along with a few half-chances – but the undercurrents of anxiety that rippled through the crowd and the way the bronze kept fiddling with her socks (a sure sign she’s not having one of her best matches) highlighted Sweden’s early superiority.
Albeit in a different way, it was turning into an even tougher match than the Lionesses’ narrowly won quarter-final against Spain.
As much as Magdalena Eriksson and her fellow defenders needed to stay on their toes in the face of Mead, Fran Kirby, Ellen White and co, Gerhardsson’s team initially created a stir for rival created earlier by the united ranks of yellow-blue folded and drummed Sweden- supporters as they marched en masse to Bramall Lane.
The Scandinavian fans had enjoyed reminding their counterparts in England that in 26 previous meetings between these two sides the Lionesses had only registered three victories, with Sweden triumphing 15 times.
Much against the run of play, Mead finally silenced the traveling fans and settled English nerves in the 34th minute. Her sixth goal in five games – a blur of steady touch, sharp turn and flawless finish – came after Lauren Hemp and Bronze stretched Sweden’s defense to the breaking point.
After that, England regained much of their early tournament poise and Kirby really began to trouble Sweden while helping to ensure that Wiegman’s side finally started to win a higher proportion of second balls.
As dusk fell, Sheffield Walsh had shaken off the shackles and Euro 2022 was lit up by a mesmerizing fast-paced semi-final that showcased the resilience in adversity that the Lionesses had seemed to abuse in the latter stages of Phil Neville’s tenure.
When, at the start of the second half, Bronze – no longer caring about socks – met Mead’s corner and headed England’s second goal, the first, extremely tentative, choruses of “Football is coming home” became audible.
It was only when Alessia Russo, with an audacious backheel, and Kirby scored the third and fourth goals that these fans really began to believe that England, against all early odds, were finally well on their way down their own road to redemption.
Perhaps that quiz question should ask: which of Edmonton, Enschede, Lyon and Sheffield is the odd one out?