Sarina Wiegman 'in a fairytale' after England reach World Cup final
- The Lionesses beat co-hosts Australia 3-1 to reach their maiden final of the Women's World Cup
- Goals from Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp, and Alessia Russo cancelled Sam Kerr's effort
- Sarina Wiegman will be managing in her fourth final at a major international tournament
Sarina Wiegman was left wondering if she was living “a fairytale” after leading England to their first ever Women's World Cup final.
The Lionesses booked their spot after a 3-1 victory against co-hosts Australia and will meet Jorge Vilda's Spain, who defeated Sweden 2-1 in their semi-final match, on Sunday.
It will be Wiegman's fourth major final as a manager, having guided the Dutch national team to a win at Euro 2017 and a second-placed finish at the 2019 World Cup. She then led England to success at Euro 2022, the team's very first international honour.
"I don’t know," Wiegman said after the match when asked how she had done it.
"I just said to Arjan [Veurink, assistant coach], the chance that as a coach or as a player you make it to finals is really special. And we’ve made it to four already! I’d never take anything for granted but I'm like, 'Am I in a little fairytale or something?'
"When we made the first final [2017 with the Netherlands] you think: 'This is really special, it might not ever happen again'. Then you make a second final, then a third, then a fourth. All the time, you’re thinking this might not ever happen again because the competition is so hard. It is very special. I do know that. But tomorrow, I’m just going to prepare for Spain."
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Ella Toone put the Lionesses ahead in the first-half, before Sam Ker equalised shortly after the hour mark with a well-taken shot from distance.
England, however, were just too much for the Matildas to contain, with Lauren Hemp capitalising on a mistake from Ellie Carpenter to fire her side ahead.
Late in the second half, Hemp's disguised pass found Alessia Russo, who scored England's third goal and sealed the win.
"It’s unbelievable," Wiegman added. "It feels like we won [the World Cup], but we didn’t win it, but we won this game. It’s an incredible stadium, an away game, the way we played of course it was a hard game but we found a way to win.
"You’ve been talking about ruthlessness all the time. I think in this team there’s ruthlessness, whether that’s up front or defence, we really want to keep the ball out of the net, we really want to win. We stick together and we stick to the plan and it worked again.
"I can hardly describe how proud I am of the team. How this team has adapted all the time, before the tournament, during the tournament and in this game. How we’ve come through and found a way to win is incredible.
"So many things have changed. Of course, the expectations in England have been high all the time but after winning the Euros, it went up. I also think the lives of the players have changed a lot. They’ve had to adapt to that which has some good things but also some challenges.
"Performing got us where we are right now and will keep us where we are. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re still growing and getting better. We’ve seen that we can adapt to situations we’ve never been in before and players can translate what we want to do to the pitch very well, and that comes with experience and a lot of intelligence."