This England team does not know when it is beaten, even when everyone else has given up on them. No matter how badly they play, no matter how much luck they have to ride, they find a way to win.
It is remarkable fortitude, incredible strength of character and it displays the very best of this nation’s indomitable spirit. They are Lionesses indeed. A pack of predators, at their most ruthless and deadly when they are wounded.
The country should be proud of them and we are, but this was a victory wrapped in the worries of what will happen in the final on Sunday.
Either Spain or Germany await and if they play as badly as this again, England will surely lose against that class of opposition.
Flawed team with a shaky defence
If Sarina Wiegman does not reflect on this performance, if she does not analyse the game and recognise the mistakes in team selection, formation and tactics that she has been making all tournament, this will almost certainly all be in vain.
Amid the euphoria and joy of their incredible comeback win over a dogged and dangerous Italy, there are so many reasons to be critical. It was, once again, a largely turgid, predictable and infuriating performance until desperation took over and the chaos began. England are a team that supposedly wants control, but thrives when they dispense with game plan and play on instinct, fuelled by desperation.
The point is this: England have been playing like this for two years and they have kept on doing so, even as they have scratched and clawed their way through the group stage and knockout rounds.
The same problems exist, the same weaknesses are being exploited. Either Wiegman has no solutions or she is refusing to accept she needs to do anything differently. Either way, England are a flawed team, with no pace in midfield, an isolated centre-forward and a defence that plays like an arsonist handles matches.
A mystery how England have reached the final
England lost their first group game against France with a terrible performance. They looked, in the words of Wiegman, to have lost their quarter-final against Sweden “four or five times” before winning on penalties in an equally scrappy and error-strewn display.
And they were less than 60 seconds from losing their semi-final to Italy until Michelle Agyemang scored an equaliser that looked like it would never come during the 96 repetitive minutes of England play that had preceded it.
England are into their third consecutive final at a major tournament. It is an unparalleled era of success in English football. Whatever happens it should be lauded.
Wiegman has been to five tournaments with the Netherlands and England as a manager, and has taken a team to the final of every single one. She has been a brilliant appointment by the Football Association by one single, pivotal metric. Football is, and always will be, about the end result not how you play to secure it. Just ask Sweden or Italy, who have thought they had England beaten, who were ready to celebrate their success – the Italy bench had already started to do so in stoppage time in Geneva – only to end shedding the tears of the defeated.
But quite how England have reached the final in Basel is a riddle. It is like a puzzle without a picture – almost impossible to work out. Yet, here we are, the reigning champions are somehow, inexplicably, 90 minutes away from retaining their crown.
Wiegman’s thinking did not make sense
Wiegman, though, needs to do something to improve the team before they are chasing a game, relying on their guts, their fitness and their good fortune to get out of trouble.
The formation looks wrong. The midfield looks unbalanced and far too easy to play through. Alessia Russo looks like the loneliest of lone strikers. The defence, despite the personnel changes and shifts in position, resembles a flimsy wooden fence blowing in the wind. It could collapse at any moment.
Against Italy, England were so bad, so predictable, so slow, they made it easy for their opponents to defend their one-goal lead. Yet, Wiegman watched and waited. You might suggest she froze, the pressure of the moment too much for the brain to work, but this was not a rare occurrence. This is what she does.
With Beth Mead on at half-time for the injured Lauren James, she persevered with an isolated centre-forward who was marked by three centre-backs. She kept Ella Toone on the pitch, a No 10 who was too slow to keep up with the team’s attacking play. In fact, she may as well have been over the border in France so far away she was from her friend in attack.
England sent cross after cross into the box and Italy’s defenders cleared them with ease. There was no pressure on them, no disruption, no danger of an England forward getting on the end of anything or a midfielder pouncing on the second ball.
Yet, Wiegman waited until the 85th minute to make another change. She waited until England were five minutes, plus injury time, away from defeat, to put two strikers on the pitch at the same time. Nine minutes later and Mead’s run into the box distracted the goalkeeper and, finally England had someone to capitalise inside the box. Agyemang did the rest.
It was impossible to work out what Wiegman’s thinking was. None of it made sense, but then maybe nothing about this England team does. Maybe it does not have to, but you suspect they will find out what the consequences are if they do the same on Sunday.
