‘Alexa; play Three Lions by the Lightning Seeds, Frank Skinner and David Baddiel!’ The European Championship trophy might have gone to Rome last year when Italy beat England on penalties at Wembley, but little less than 12 months on and there’s already fresh hope that football’s coming home again — as England gear up to host another major finals this summer.
That’s right, the European Women’s Championship returns to England for the first time since 2005 and games will be held at grounds up and down the country this summer, including Bramall Lane, Stadium MK and the Brighton and Hove Community Stadium, and the Lionesses are one of the favourites to win the tournament if you’re here looking for a bet on football!
So, with around a month to go until England get the Women’s Euro 2022 underway against Austria at Old Trafford on July 6th, hoping to get off to a winning start, let’s take a look at three reasons why Sarina Wiegman can guide the Lionesses to their first European Women’s Championship title.
Home advantage
As England proved last summer, having home advantage never goes a miss in a major tournament, and it’s certainly not an uncommon theme for the hosts of the Women’s Euros to go on and win the title on home soil — with Norway (1987), Germany (1989 and 2001) and the Netherland’s most recently in 2017 all lifting the trophy as host nations.
The Lionesses will be well backed in their Group A games against Austria, Norway and Northern Ireland as well, with Old Trafford, Brighton & Hove Community Stadium and St. Mary’s all completely sold out. We’re sure their subsequent knockout games will also be at full capacity, while the final at Wembley has been sold out for months.
Sarina Wiegman has been there and done it
Another massive factor in England’s quest to win their maiden Women’s Euros is their manager Sarina Wiegman, who replaced Phil Neville last August, as she’s already won the trophy as a head coach. In fact, she’s the defending champion after winning the 2017 edition of the tournament with the Netherlands.
The Dutchwoman also led her country to the final of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, but they came up just short against a very good USA side. Wiegman has completely shaken things up since succeeding Neville, with her attacking style a joy to behold, and she is undoubtedly one of the reasons that England are amongst the favourites in the Women’s EUROs betting.
Red hot form
It’s perhaps fair to say that things had gone a bit steal under Neville before he headed off to Florida to manage David Beckham’s Inter Miami, as England finished third of four teams in the SheBelieves Cup after defeats to the United States and Spain before friendly defeats to France and Canada.
However, results have completely turned on their head since Wiegman came in. England are unbeaten in her 11 games in charge of the Lionesses since succeeding Neville, winning on nine occasions while scoring an impressive 72 times and conceding just twice.
Some of England’s best results include 10-0 wins over North Macedonia, Luxembourg and Lative, while they also beat the latter an unprecedented 20-0 in the second meeting of the World Cup qualifiers.
But the 3-1 win over World No.4 Germany in the inaugural Arnold Clark Cup, which England won back in February, is arguably the best of her tenure and will fill the Lionesses’ fans with plenty of hope ahead of the Women’s Euros.
