Our 3️⃣ points after England beat Germany to clinch first major honour | OneFootball

England Women made history on Sunday when Chloe Kelly’s goal after extra-time saw them overcome Germany to win Euro 2022.

Here’s what we made of a momentous day at Wembley.

Sarina Wiegman, where do you want your statue?

After she guided the Netherlands to the last European Championship in 2017, England hired Wiegman and tasked her with delivering glory to a nation which had been starved of it for a long, long time. No pressure.

And after less than a year in the role, that is exactly what the Dutch coach has achieved.

Not only is this the England Women’s team’s first ever major honour, it is of course England’s first senior international triumph since 1966.

After the heartache suffered by the men’s team last summer, the English public have been a little more reserved this year, and fervent talk of “football coming home” largely made way for quiet optism.

But Baddiel and Skinner’s until-now-ironic anthem blared out at Wembley as soon as the final whistle blew, and the party will rage on long into the night.

This triumph was achieved by a coach instilling a strict footballing philosophy and trusting in the process.

Wiegman’s starting XI for the final was the same one she’d picked for the previous five matches, but every player in the squad has played their part over the last month, and it was of course two substitutes who ultimately delivered the goods.

England finally has a football team to wholeheartedly celebrate, and these women will be immortalised forever by the events of 31st July 2022.

A valiant German effort

Germany aren’t used to being the underdogs when it comes to football and of the 87,192 spectators in attendance from this game, only approximately 3,000 of them were there to support the visitors.

A lesser team might have been overawed by the circumstances and when they lost captain Alexandra Popp to injury in the warm-up, an already uphill task suddenly felt even more daunting.

But there is a reason Germany have won this competition eight times in the past, and it’s the level of discipline and composure instilled into their players from an early age.

Die Nationalelf didn’t panic once during the tournament, not even when Ella Toone put England 1-0 up to lift the roof off Wembley. They kept their heads and soon got back into the game with a goal from the brilliant Lina Magull.

But in the end, perhaps England were simply destined to win the tournament this year. The two best teams made it to the final and with the home crowd roaring them on, the Lionesses just about edged it.

It was a valiant effort from the runners-up all the same, and Martina Voss-Tecklenburg will rightly be proud of her players.

An unforgettable summer

Euro 2022 has not only been a historic event for England, but a watershed moment for women’s football.

The 87,192 people who packed into Wembley didn’t only set a record for a women’s final, but for UEFA competition as a whole.

The women’s game has come an unimaginably long way and is growing in popularity, while the standard continues to improve at a rapid rate both at club and international level.

Speaking pre-match, England’s Jill Scott paid tribute to those who have supported women’s football from the very beginning when she said: “I’ve seen people here that have been following the women’s game for 15 years, just for the love of it. I want them to know, if we win the trophy, they’ve got their hand on it too.”

She was absolutely right, and the people she was referring to really deserve to revel in Euro 2022’s incredible success.

In fact, everybody who has attended a match this summer or followed the tournament on TV has played their part. Women’s football is here to stay, and it will be fascinating to see where this momentum takes it in the next few years.

But having said all that, perhaps it’s about time we stopped talking about “women’s football” and “men’s football”, because it’s just football when all’s said and done, and it’s absolutely wonderful.