More decisive substitutions and another second half surge help England reach another final

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2 days ago

By the end, even the most ardent England supporter had to have some sympathy with Italy. 'We were one minute away from the final,' said manager Andrea Soncin after the game. 'Our players deserved a different end. Unfortunately, sometimes you don't get what you deserve.'
But this is becoming England's template — denying opponents what they feel they deserved. Sweden were the better side in the quarter-final in Zurich last week. Both Colombia and Nigeria could have beaten England at the World Cup two years ago. Even at Euro 2022, Spain led the quarter-final 1-0 before collapsing and losing 2-1, and Sweden started the semi-final the stronger before somehow losing 4-0. So often, Sarina Wiegman's England could have been eliminated before the final. Somehow, they never are.
Defeat to Italy here in Geneva would have been, in all honesty, a spectacular failure. The pressure always ramps up as you progress through a tournament, of course, but elimination to this Italy side would arguably have been a bigger embarrassment than going out in an extremely tough group, or losing to an impressive Sweden side in the quarter-final.
Italy are inexperienced on this stage. They would arguably not get a single player into England's starting XI. To be frank, they didn't play particularly well in this game, scoring against the run of play with a well-taken Barbara Bonansea goal — until then, her first touch had been sorely lacking — and defending their own box well, but otherwise hardly looking like they belonged in a European Championship final. But when you lead the majority of a game, you inevitably feel like you should have won.
The question is quite why England made such heavy weather of what should have been a relatively simple task. England repeatedly start matches slowly, in a very literal sense; unable to set the tempo of the game with quick passing. They demonstrated, even at the start of the second half, that they're capable of playing at a higher speed, and their ability to force late spells of pressure is unmatched. But England are tentative and timid in the first half of matches. They got away with it at the World Cup two years ago, before finding that Spain were too good to allow England their second half dominance. The same fate might await them in the final, if Spain defeat Germany in Zurich tonight.
'The first half we didn't play well — we didn't have the energy in the game,' said Wiegman. 'We did have the ball more and we were playing a little more in their half but we didn't create. And the second half we did better, but of course they defended really well too. So when we were in the final third there wasn't much space… they were really aggressive and winning lots of duels.
The good news, of course, is that England are a different side in the second half of matches. That's partly because, in the era of five substitutes, they literally are a different side — up to 50% different.
It's often said that Sarina Wiegman only makes changes around the hour mark, but here she went both earlier and later. Beth Mead was summoned in place of Lauren James at half-time, and offered more width and drive — James had been guilty of taking too many touches, and slowing England down.
Chloe Kelly, who changed the game against Sweden, was only summoned after 77 minutes. But the big surprise was that Wiegman waited even longer before introducing both Michelle Agyemang and Aggie Beever-Jones, a brand new strike partnership with five minutes — plus stoppage time — remaining. Agyemang replicated her rescue act from the Sweden game, to send the match into extra time.
Decisive substitutes have become Wiegman's trademark. Ella Toone and Alessia Russo provided crucial contributions when England won the last European Championship, with Toone netting an equaliser in the quarter-final against Spain, and then the opener in the final. What is somewhat unclear is how much this is pure Wiegman genius, and how much England simply have back-ups of greater quality than their opponents'. Neither Sweden nor Italy were capable of matching the calibre of England's replacements. Mead, Kelly, Beever-Jones and Agyemang is an extremely strong quartet to have in reserve.
Another peculiarity is Wiegman's approach in extra time. Having loaded up on attackers in a desperate attempt to equalise, Wiegman then prefers to keep the same players and system on the pitch, even though the situation in the game has changed dramatically. In the quarter-final, England were second-best, and here against a demoralised Italy they allowed the game to drift, even if they eventually found a winner when Kelly followed up her own penalty. It feels like returning to something approaching a 'standard' system, with some kind of midfield control, would have served England better.
'We had to bring on so many attacking players that we didn't have so many options to bring on defenders,' said Wiegman — although it's worth pointing out that she did have two changes left. 'We had to solve that in the team (on the pitch), and taking account of the fact some players will get fatigued,' she said. She also emphasised the important of 'giving the players clarity when we change the shape,' and said that Lauren Hemp, who played as an emergency left-back in extra time, has the tactical discipline to play there on a full-time basis.
'The girls did an incredible job playing positions we're not used to,' said Kelly after the game, still on a high having tapped home the winner. 'You can never write off the English.' That expression used to be said by the English — about the Germans. But the more England pull off great escapes, the more they can claim that label for themselves.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
England, Italy, International Football, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros
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