By Andrew Warshaw
July 5 – A year after the country’s men’s team suffered the heartache of losing in the Euros final, England’s Lionesses are aiming to go one better in the women’s tournament that gets under way on Wednesday.
England take on Austria at Old Trafford with the hosts one of the favourites for the title as they try to claim the first piece of major silverware in their history.
After being postponed for a year due to Covid-19, the Women’s Euros runs until July 31 and is expected to smash all previous attendance records with multiple sell-outs.
On paper it is very much an unpredictable tournament with any of a handful of countries in with a chance of winning the title.
As well as the host nation, Olympic runners-up Sweden, Spain and holders the Netherlands are all among the favourites, the Spanish led by Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and boosted by a significant growth of the sport in the country, with Barcelona winning its first Champions League title in 2021.
“She’s young and, best of all, is passionate about football and understands it very well, which is not something every player has,” Spain coach Jorge Vilda said of Putellas. “She has so much quality, sees things before others and executes everything with pace and style.”
Ten of the 23 players in the Spanish squad are from the Catalan giants and last week’s 1-1 warm-up draw against Italy extended an unbeaten streak for Spain’s golden generation of players that started in March 2020. Despite not having won a European Championship or World Cup, now is Spain’s chance to put that right.
Despite being ranked only sixth in Europe, England have hit form at the right time under new manager Sarina Wiegman who is bidding to win her second successive European title after leading the Netherlands to victory in 2017.
The Norwegians are the toughest opponents in England’s group and will be out for revenge having been knocked out by England in two of the last three international tournaments. The return of all-time Champions League top scorer Ada Hegerberg to the Norwegian line-up is a major boost.
France and the Netherlands are also powerful candidates and never write off the Germans, one of the most successful national teams in women’s football.
Germany are record eight-time European Championship winners and two-time World champions. Their star may have faded somewhat – the last time the Germans had success at a major tournament was in the 2016 Olympic Games – but they are bound to provide stiff opposition.
Some 500,000 tickets were snapped up before the first ball is even kicked. All England’s group stage games sold out months ago and tickets are no longer available for the Wembley final, where 87,200 spectators are expected at the end of July.
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