England’s footballers danced happily to their hit song “Sweet Caroline” through the stadium – Australia’s Matilda shed many tears after missing the final of their World Cup.
After beating the co-hosts 3-1 (1-0) in the semifinals, Sarina Wiegman’s team will now play against Spain on Sunday (12:00 p.m. CEST/ZDF), also in Sydney for the first time for the World Cup title. “It’s almost like a fairy tale here,” said the Dutch coach of European champions England proudly.
Congratulations for reaching the English final
Even King Charles sent the “heartiest congratulations” on reaching the final on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Both teams were “an inspiration on and off the field”.
The English were not impressed by the loud crowd of 75,784 spectators and caused the Australian sporting nation to mourn with goals from Ella Toone (36th minute), Lauren Hemp (71st) and Alessia Russo (86th).
“Brilliant@Lionesses!!” (“Brilliant, lionesses!!”) wrote Harry Kane, Bayern Munich’s new star striker. He had been rooting for his country’s selection of women. “We’re all behind them. Hopefully they make it to the final,” England’s captain said on English pay-TV channel Sky. “When they won the European Championship, that brought the country closer together. I’ll watch the final in Germany and wish them all the best. They deserve it.”
In a hard-fought semi-final, superstar Sam Kerr had fueled Australia’s hopes again with a wonderful goal (63rd) to equalize in the meantime. The captain was in the starting XI for the first time after her calf injury and missed two chances shortly before the end. “Having been away for so long she hasn’t really trained. Unbelievable,” said boss Tony Gustavsson of the Chelsea player’s performance.
Australia’s Prime Minister offers consolation
The Swede struggled for composure in the interview after the final whistle. “I feel for a lot of people here. The players gave their all out on the field,” he said. But his team didn’t want to go “empty-handed,” he said ahead of the consolation game for third place against Sweden on Saturday (10:00 a.m. CEST/ARD) in Brisbane. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered comfort to his country’s women footballers: “Every single Matilda has given us joy during this World Cup.”
“I’m sorry,” said his colleague Wiegman apologetically at the press conference after noting that she had ended Australia’s title dream. She is reaching for her first World Cup star with the English, third in 2015 and fourth in 2019, a year after her triumph at the European Championships at home. Georgia Stanway from FC Bayern Munich is also there as the only Bundesliga player, she missed the first big chance of the game. The top scorer Lauren James, who was suspended last time, is also allowed to play again against Spain.
“The Lionesses silenced the crowd at Australia Stadium with a 3-1 win and became the first English side to reach the final on the world stage since 1966,” BBC Sport said. At the end, Wiegman was surrounded by her beaming players. “It’s unbelievable. So really: what an achievement!” said the 53-year-old shortly afterwards and said with a view to the grand finale: “It almost feels like we won there. But we did obviously not won yet.”
“Wiegman the Guardiola of women’s football”
Wiegman is the last remaining coach in the tournament. After being European champions in 2017 and runners-up in the 2019 World Cup with the Netherlands, it will be her fourth final in a major tournament in a row. “Sarina Wiegman is the Pep Guardiola of women’s football,” was the headline in the Telegraph after the Lionesses reached the final.
From the start, the English played more confidently and attacked than the Matildas, who, euphoric about the enthusiasm in the country, went to work with great passion – but made a decisive mistake through defender Ellie Carpenter at 1:2.
An incident during the secret final training session of the English women made headlines immediately before the game: the training session was apparently filmed from the air. According to the Australian newspaper “Daily Telegraph”, the newspaper itself is responsible for the published images. “When England’s lionesses thought they were going to just fly under the radar into the semi-finals of the World Cup, they got a real shock. We sent the helicopter up to see how the old enemy was preparing,” it said in pithy words: ” Welcome to the jungle lionesses, let’s have fun and play.”
