England Women manager, Sarina Wiegman has described reaching the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final with England as a “fairytale”.
Late goals from Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo sealed a first Women’s World Cup Final appearance for England, after Ella Toone’s 36th minute opening strike from a tight angle was cancelled out by Sam Kerr’s 25 metre stunner for the tourname co-hosts.
For Wiegman, this triumph also made her the first manager to reach two consecutive Women’s World Cup Finals with two different countries, having achieved the feat with Netherlands in 2019 but lost 2-0 to USA on that occasion and now with England who will face Spain in the showpiece decider.
Speaking to BBC reporter, Jo Currie post-match, Wiegman reflected upon how this is the fourth time in the last five major tournaments that she has taken a team to the final, only failing to do so with the Netherlands at 2020 Olympics.
Acknowledging how rare that achievement is, Wiegman commented: “I don’t know. I just said to Arjan [Veurink, England assistant coach] the chance as a coach and as a player to make it to finals is really special and we’ve made it to four already!
“I never take anything for granted but am I hearing a little fairytale or something?”
The 3-1 win also marked the first time that any senior England team has reached the Final since the men’s team achieved that feat in 1966, although these Lionesses are the first senior England team to do so on foreign soil.
“We achieved the final – it’s unbelievable,” continued Wiegman as she praised Stadium Australia, Sydney, as “an incredible stadium,” despite having to endure “a hard game,” where their attacking creativity and resilient defending saw them through to the win.
The 53 year-old turned her attention towards her team and their clinical end product plus resilient defensive unity, as she added: “At the end, I think it’s about ruthlessness. This team is ruthless, whether that’s upfront or in defence, we really want to keep the ball out of the net and really want to win.
“We stick together and stick to the plan, and it worked again!”
Wiegman also applauded Australia for their “incredible” progress and inspiration to their home nation, despite having to grow into the tournament after suffering their own “setbacks” including risk of elimination in Group Stage, which saw them eventually “playing better and better.”
The Aussies though were without Kerr in the Group Stage due to a calf injury, which further limited her to substitute appearances in their knockout wins over Denmark and Australia before she started in their semi-final defeat.
Wiegman had praise for Kerr for how she demonstrated her importance within the Australia team, as she concluded: “Sam Kerr came back and we saw today why she’s the star of the team, but as a team they’re really tough to play against. So what a performance.”