Sarina Weikman has won a prize again. The 53-year-old coach from The Hague won the final with England footballers at a packed Wembley, where the European title was won in July last year. South American champions Brazil lost on penalties tonight.
Manchester United’s 23-year-old attacking midfielder Ella Doone scored the opening goal midway through the first half at Wembley. Dune scored after a good attack by captain Leah Williamson, Lauren James and Lucy Bronze.
With an odds ratio of 11-10 (5-4 on goal), England had 71 percent of possession at Wembley, but the game was reasonably even. A crowd of 83,132 saw England dominate in the first half, but there weren’t many chances after the break. England looked set to win 1-0, but after a modest intervention by keeper Mary Earps, Brazil pulled through in the 93rd minute through substitute Andressa Alves to make it 1-1.
England won the penalty shootout 4-2. Chloe Kelly scored the decisive penalty after Ella Dunn, Rafaelle Souza and Damirez were all down. Kelly scored the winning goal in extra time against Germany in last year’s European Championship final at Wembley.
Favorite for the world title
This is the first edition of the Finalissima for women since Argentina beat European champions Italy 3-0 in the first men’s edition on June 1 last year. The preview for the World Cup in Qatar six months later was for Lionel Messi and his teammates.
England will be hoping to become women’s world champions for the first time at next summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where Wickman’s side will surely look one of the early favourites. England face Haiti, Denmark and China in the group stage. Next Tuesday, England will face Australia in a friendly at Brentford.
The Orange will train tomorrow evening against Germany in Sittard and against Poland on Tuesday evening at Het Kasteel in Rotterdam. At the World Cup, Vietnam, Portugal and the United States face national coach Andries Jonger’s team in the group stage. The Dutch team won the 2017 European Championship with Wiegman and lost the 2019 World Cup final against the United States. At last year’s European Championship, the Dutch lost 1-0 to France under Mark Parsons in the quarter-finals after extra time.
26 wins and four draws: Wykeman is still unbeaten with England after thirty internationals. The goal difference of 138-10 is also impressive.
Wiegman won the European title in his home country of England last year and repeated the trick with the Orange Lions in the summer of 2017. Wickman won the Arnold Clark Trophy twice with England, a three-match friendly in a week. Recently, Wiegmann was also named FIFA Football Coach of the Year for the third time.
After two awards in the Netherlands (Pondsrider in 2012 and Knight of the Order of Orange at NASA in 2017), Wiegmann received the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year coach award in England in December.
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