Wiegman hails ‘really incredible’ England support following EURO opener | OneFootball

England boss Sarina Wiegman described the atmosphere as ‘really incredible’ after her side defeated Austria 1-0 at Old Trafford in front of a UEFA Women’s EURO record crowd of 68,871 in their opening group match last night.

Beth Mead netted the game’s only goal in the first half for the Lionesses as they battled beyond a really well-drilled Austrian outfit.

When speaking in the post-match press conference, England boss Wiegman admitted that she was blown over by the special atmosphere at ‘The Theatre of Dreams’.

“Incredible, I have no more words to describe it, unbelievable,” Wiegman said when commenting on the atmosphere. “We know where we have come from so playing here at Old Trafford in front of 70,000 people making lots of noise and standing right behind us, that was really incredible.

“I hope they keep going and keep coming, they will because we have sold out stadiums.”

On their big occasion, England huffed and puffed to create flowing football at times. Wiegman highlighted her team’s decision-making as an area for improvement.

She said “I think we were a little rushed in the final third. We did create a lot of chances but the final touch, the choice on the ball – to shoot, to cross or to maybe just take it on, we can do that better.

“The most important thing is that we scored one, we kept the clean sheet which was really nice too and we got three points.”

Wiegman has built a reputation for making effective substitutions in her time as England head coach. She brought on Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo and Ella Toone just after the hour as she looked to create a spark. The substitutions didn’t really add an extra dimension to the Lionesses’ attacking play, although Wiegman said that she did feel that the trio made an impact on the game.

“I did think they had an impact but it also says a lot about Austria, they did really well too,” Wiegman said. “When they came on, right away we had a big chance and after that we had a counter attack with Chloe where we could have got more out of it so I did think there was an impact. It again shows the depth of my team.”

England’s next UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 group match is against Norway in Brighton on Monday.