The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Netherlands out as France complete final four – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: July 24, 2022

Faye Carruthers, Suzanne Wrack, Karen Carney and Tim Stillman wrap up the quarter-final stages as France, England Germany and Sweden book their place in the final four

Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is supported by Visa. Hello, I'm Faye Carruthers and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. The semi-finals are set and the reigning champions are out. England will play Sweden and Germany face France

for a coveted place in next week's Wembley final. Sweden and France did their absolute best not to get through. Or was there just a force field around the goals in Lee and Rotherham? Manuela Zinsberger had a night to forget as Austria were the architects of their own downfall. But at least Clorobor could see the funny side of her miss. The streets of the north, though, have fallen silent as the Oranje got their marching orders. We'll go through the remaining quarterfinals, take your questions, look ahead to the semis, and that's today's

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and programmes like the second half, Visa hopes to encourage more young girls to believe that a career in football is possible. And it's in this world of doors opening for more people, where we might see a new player of the match, or a totally unexpected entrepreneur among us. Visa recognises that we'll only see the best of all of us when everyone participates. Find out more at theguardian.com slash all hyphen win. Oh, what a panel we have today.

Susie Rack, are you free from isolation? Double COVID negative tests. Oh, yes. Wonderful. Just in time to get to the Lensbury later. Excellent. So the shackles are off. Susie is about.

Watch out. Karen Carney, did you survive watching that England game? I'm not sure if the rest of us did. I think just like the team said, I wasn't really, I never felt we were going home. So I think the story has still got a little bit more to tell. So team said, I wasn't really, I never felt we were going home so I think the story has still got a little bit more to tell so yeah, I was pretty confident.

Nice. I wish I felt the same. I felt sick for the majority of that second half. Tim Stillman, can you believe we're into our last week already? No, not at all and here staring at two free days, two whole days without games.

I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I might like see my family and stuff. Oh, wow. That would be novel. Enjoy that. OK, let's start in Rotherham last night, shall we? France gave Netherlands a 1-0 thrashing, which sounds really strange, but that's pretty much what it was. It ended France's quarterfinal curse and they reached the semifinals of European Championship for the first time ever. Yves Perisset with the penalty in extra time after Dominique Janssen brought down Dejani.

Susie, we can't really talk about this match without talking about Daphne von Domselaar. What a Euros that she's had. Even got her glove to the penalty, but not meant to be. Absolutely incredible. And I think 20 have gave her a new contract just before the tournament and they're going to be literally sort of rubbing their hands with glee at the smart business there.

I think all the court finals, to be honest, were stories of goalkeeping, weren't they? Like one way or the other. And yeah, she was obviously a huge highlight, I thought, at Everard as well for Belgium. Particularly good and, you know, very, very sorry for them to be on the losing teams. Yeah, it's a shame, isn't it?

Somebody always has to go home. But when you've seen a player who's had such a fantastic tournament, it's even harsher. Tim Vivian-Miedema straight back into the starting line-up for the Dutch after Covid. She said that her whole tournament was just shit. I mean, she always just spells it out as it is, doesn't it, Viv? But it seems a little bit harsh on herself.

But at the same time, it's been a tough couple of weeks for her. Yeah, it really has. And yeah, having spoken to Viv many, many times, she says what she means and she means what she says. I mean, it has been largely for reasons beyond her control. She had that brilliant game against Sweden on the opening day for Netherlands and one player of the match

and probably turned the game around, not quite single-handedly, but close to it. And then all of a sudden struck down with COVID. And I think the thing that's quite striking about this is nearly all the other players in the tournament that have had COVID missed one game, but she missed two. And there was kind of, there were some question marks about how fit she would be going into this. So it seemed to really impact her. And look, Viv has played in many tournaments before and lit them up and she'll play in many tournaments after this but I don't think this one will live very long in her memory at all unfortunately you could tell how frustrated she was couldn't you her body

language wasn't wasn't great throughout but I don't know how many people I mean Susie may attest to this having just had it can play 120 minutes of football having had Covid? Oh, I feel great. I mean, I can easily do it. Just kidding. No, yeah. Like, I mean, particularly the first 24 hours, which is, you know, sort of a similar time to when she had it. I was a fever in the 40 degree heat.

It was absolutely awful. And I just, yeah, the idea of coming straight back into a side and playing a full 90 is baffling. It's a shame, but with Mark Parsons not having been in the job that long, I very much feel that this wasn't necessarily going to be a tournament that the Dutch really established themselves at under him. He's not had a huge amount of time to stamp of stamp his mark on the team I think we'll see a very very different side come the World Cup and I think yeah I think it'll be a blip on their

like quite impressive record in recent years. Karen the French have had so many blips on their copybook for such a long time but they finally broke through this ceiling that they've had about reaching a major semi-finals. How hard can it be if you're a team that kind of have that history of choking around this stage of the knockouts? It's tough, especially, you know, when it went to extra time in the latter part of the game, where you're thinking, and they absolutely dominated in terms of opportunities and entries into the final third. They had so many compared to the Netherlands and just didn't take them, just weren't clinical. And it comes to one of those points when you have a mental block,

you're thinking, oh, we've missed these chances. We're not taking them. We're not being clinical. They're still in the game. They're still the current holders. You probably do have that doubt. But then once the goal went in, I thought then they relaxed and they're in control

and you just saw them. This might be them now. This might be them kicking on. I remember we played Germany in the World Cup in 15 and we had a mental block over them. It's one of the hardest things to overcome because you think it's just another team. Why? What is it?

And the same for knockout stuff. It does really affect you because you can't take away history. You can't eradicate it. But you've got to find a way in fair play to France to have done. And they go into, obviously, a massive game now against Germany. And, you know, at least they can dust that one off and go, all right, we're going to another knockout. And it's fresh for us now. We're past that point.

I wonder whether that will completely change their mentality. The whole game, Susie, was literally all France. 4.44 xG was what the figure was. One goal to show for it. How many times have we talked about being clinical in this tournament so far it's it's just seems to be very difficult for everybody does it just show how toothless they are without Marie Antoinette Cototo and how much they miss her to just for the tap-ins and and the finishes yes and no i mean she's a huge player obviously um and it's

been so important to the the group stage just for the presence she adds as as well as you know like her actual goal scoring and of itself like she opens spaces up for other people but at the same time like france's story is a journey of like overcoming absences isn't it if you talk about sort of some of the big players that are missing having fallen out with the act you know the Amandine Henri's and Eugenie LeSommers and then obviously Katoto getting injured you know it's hugely impressive really that they've looked relatively untroubled by all those absences the fact that they're still creating so many chances getting in the box so much it absences the fact that they're still creating so many chances getting in the box so much it was sort of inevitable that they were going to score

yesterday you know whether in normal time or extra time so yes obviously she's a huge loss and the further they go the more pronounced that loss will probably be but at the same time like they've done it to this point really with so many big misses that you sort of think that's got to do a hell of a lot for the confidence of of the team knowing that they can still create without some of the biggest names that they potentially have at their disposal interesting it's going to be fascinating to see how they get on against Germany Question from Tapio here, how are the Netherlands so toothless in attack? Seems like with their material they should be banging them in even against France Tim, were you surprised at how little the Dutch offered in this match? Not overly, no, for some of the reasons that Susie suggested

that Mark Parsons hasn't had a long time with this team and there's lots of things. You can see in this tournament, there are some teams that look really settled. England are one of them. Germany, one of them. And then there are some teams that are still trying to sort things out. And that's Netherlands. Netherlands have made changes.

And in this game, they dropped Gilles Rode and played Daniel van der Donk because Mark Parsons hasn't found a way to get them both in the team and to be fair to him Daniel van der Donk was injured for most of last season so he's not been able to sort that out before the tournament and then you can see other things and again Susie alluded to this there is like a team bubbling up underneath this team with players like Palova Egorola I think will come in by the time that the next World Cup starts and Bruts and of course Van Domselaar coming in in goal so I think the problem for Netherlands in this tournament was they were trying to put the plane together while it was

already in flight in tournament terms and I think you'll I do think you'll see a different Netherlands next year so definitely with the names they have, yes, they should be carrying more threat, but I just don't think they've got that balance. And the injury to Lika Martens as well, I think, you know, had a further impact to bear there. Yeah, that was huge. But Karen, Tim mentioned Jill Roard there,

not in the starting line-up, and apparently because of comments that she made about Mark Persons earlier on in the week she did an interview with DeVolt's Grants and said that he gives more talks than Serena and he likes to go in depth and then 50% drops out with us I mean what kind of impact does that kind of thing have on a team that they're quite clearly not exactly on board with their new head coach just yet? Yeah, I mean, I was watching other people talk about it as well. So sometimes things like that get out.

Usually there's no smoke without fire, right? So there's obviously a different style. He brings in a different, and it's hard. I'm guessing that, I don't know if it's a bit of a poison chalice because of how successful Serena was you come in and you win the Euros on home soil you get to a World Cup final and that's your cycle they came to that cycle in terms of management and maybe the squad needed that freshen up but it's really hard when you've had such success and then change that's the hardest thing now

whether it's good bad and different it's obviously hasn't worked in this tournament but they are in the transition but I can understand that you know keeping it simple sometimes is the best way but this is his style and for whatever reason whether that's accurate or not she didn't feature and she came on but for me the the Netherlands are in a transition and you know you've had a two tournament cycle that's been absolutely phenomenal and now they need to build again and go again and maybe get used to his style and his way. I actually kind of feel sorry for him a little bit because it's really hard to make that jump from a club coach to an international manager and I don't think necessarily people are given enough time to adapt into that role.

You look at Andonofsky in the US, he's not exactly taken to it like a duck to water. It's taken him a little bit of time to find his feet in that role. And we're only really going to see him properly tested. Now he's found his feet a little bit at the World Cup next year. But you sort of need to allow a little bit of a cycle before you sort of go all guns blazing on them i think and i think mark parsons is probably making some mistakes but everyone is going to make a few mistakes when they go into like quite a different

type of role um and a different way of working because it is a very very different format to your sort of working week and stuff. When you're taking on an international role, you're not picking your players to a certain extent and that kind of stuff. So I feel like, yeah, Gerrard, there's probably no smoke without fire, as Karen was saying. But like at the same time, maybe they need to ease up on him a little bit and just give him a little bit of time with shorting Susie I think on you make a good point there is that but when you're a club coach you get so much pitch time with players when you're an international coach you actually grass contact time is really minimal so even though you're in a three-week tournament it's safe you play a game your next day's a

recovery your next day's recovery then you've only got a two-day build-up. So actually, he might be going, this is a training session for me, having a meeting with players and having a lot of information. And as you said, he might look back and go, actually, I don't need to do that. Or maybe I'm still sticking with it and they've got to get used to it. But as you said, it is very, very different. The grass contact time you have with a player is completely different from club to international level.

And that's an adjustment for him that I'm sure he's trying to get used to. That's quite an interesting point, actually. And I wonder, I don't know the kind of character that Mark Parsons is. He seems like a pretty chilled out guy. But in these kind of circumstances, you've got to take the ego out of things haven't you and it's whether or not he'll be able to take the ego out of his players criticizing what his style is to learn from it and that could be quite key let's move on to France's semi-final opponents Germany Susie mentioned them there two nil win over Austria on Thursday night goals from Lina Magul and Alex Pop popping up Poppy on the score sheet again, Kaz.

You must be absolutely delighted. Your mate. She's not my mate. I remember in the World Cup, we had the Farrah's penalty and I squared up to realise it was Poppy and absolutely bottled it. And then any of all players came

and pushed her and backed up. And I thought, me and you are not the two people to take on Pop. I tell you straight. So I don't think she's my mate. But yeah, she's definitely a different, she's very, very competitive, put it that way. Make friends, make friends, I think.

It was an inspired performance by Austria. They hit the woodwork on several occasions. And so really, when we've been waxing lyrical about Germany this entire tournament, it actually wasn't particularly comfortable for them despite that scoreline, Susie. No, not at all. And like that's testament to Austria, I think they've been unfairly labelled the surprise package

of the tournament because, you know, they did reach the semifinals of this competition last time out. So they shouldn't have been, maybe. And, yeah, extraordinarily unlucky with hitting the woodwork a whole load of times. That Dunst one in particular, off the bar, you were just like, come on, somebody's got to fall their way, surely. And it was, yeah, I mean, obviously some pretty disastrous goalkeeping that undid them, which was sad to see from an England's domestic football point of view.

You know, Zinsberger had an incredible season for Arsenal, most clean sheets across the season. And yeah, real like poor decision making for both the goals really, which was disappointing. Yeah, she had a shocker tim didn't she manuela zinsberger real shame for her but austria still have come out of this tournament you know with a bit of a halo around them i feel because they've probably gained themselves legions of of new neutral fans yeah definitely and and i was um i got like i guess annoyed by some of the analysis after um

england v austria because i think a lot of people underestimated austria first of all i mean as a team they are better than the sum of their parts they're very very well organized just go back and look at how many goals they've conceded over the last year. It's not many at all. But they have also got really, really good players. Like Karina Wenninger has played over 200 times for Bayern Munich. Manu Zinsberg has won the Golden Gloves award in the WSL this season. You know, Vicky Schneiderbeck couldn't play in this game, but she's played for Bayern Munich and Arsenal. Sarah Puntergam, I think, is one of the best number sixes around.

Zadrazil, one of the best number tens around. Nicole Bieler won the golden boot in the Bundesliga a couple of years ago. They've got some serious players, and they definitely come out of this tournament with great credit. I was at this game, and I think the thing is with Germany, though, that makes them really ominous is they just seem to be able to solve different problems. So when they play Spain and they don't have the ball, they solve that problem. They play a team like Austria who tried to play them on the counter.

They solve that problem as well. And that's what I think makes Germany potentially the favourites, I think, at this point to win this tournament. I have to say, sorry. No, no need to apologise, although I will just remind you that England also solved the problem of Spain's possession-based football and managed to turn things around there. Kaz, interested to see your perspective as a former player, because even though obviously Manuel Zinsberger was at fault for the two goals, the pressure that the German front line puts defences under is so intense that it makes them make mistakes.

Yeah, I was listening to the Liverpool assistant manager, Pep, talk about how Liverpool press a player, or they call it chase, and he says the last two yards are the most important. And I think Pup or Puppy, I've never seen anyone press, especially the last two yards, a player like she has. So usually when you get up to a ball, you think you've done your job, be I've never seen anyone press especially the last two yards as a player like she has so usually when you get up to a ball you think you've done your job but she absolutely goes up with intent to win it and that's something we need to be mindful of and Austria have their

philosophy you know they play and they wanted to play through it and that's absolutely credit to and they stuck to their guns but you do have mistakes we saw it against Spain they stuck to their philosophy they also got caught out. So we've just got to be, whoever it is, France as well, have got to be aware of that. You can't take it away. It's a huge part of their game. But I have to agree with Tim.

They can play multiple ways. Like against Spain, they can just drop off and wait for you in the central areas and then go press you. Or if they want to press you high, they can. Their build-up is very, very different as well. they are the ultimate problem solvers at the moment but the common theme I think throughout is that the teams are that have gone to have had a lot of chances but all I think all of them are struggling with clinical edge you know they're only one by one goal margins so they're all in similar situations and they just got to eradicate those mistakes

really yeah and actually being adaptable in a tournament is really key. Being adaptable as any team is really key. But interesting, Susie, on Alex Popp there, because she's the first player to score in four consecutive games at a Euros. And Southern Silves said, Popp said, if this is my only Euros, I'm going to do it right. I mean, it's sort of miraculous, really, isn't it? That this is the first one she's played at when she's got, you know, close to 120 caps.

But yeah, making up for lost time, right? Like there's no better way to do it. No, absolutely there isn't. Interesting question from David on Twitter. Is it really fair for the second teams to have two days less recovery than teams in the first quarterfinals? German players must have loved seeing the French do 120 tonight. Karen, how much does that difference in recovery time affect you? 100 percent. I'd be like, give them extra time, go the whole way from playing against them.

But this tournament has been kind. You know, previous tournaments, you three-day, two-day turnover and it adds up. They have got a little bit more time. What I would say is now with technology, there's better recovery strategies. With finances, teams are more equipped with staffing to help recovery, but there's no better recovery than sleep, rest, hydration and time. You need that. For me, it is a disadvantage if you are that team that has less recovery time and especially given the circumstances of covid I think it is a massive

disadvantage and that's brilliant for England in terms of recovery time getting players fresh and fit and firing training time you know like I said before you know someone like Mark Parsons might not be used to grass time or Well, if you have extra recovery, you can recover and still have maximum pitch time to put your game plan and start to strategize around it. So I think it is very helpful.

Yeah, it certainly is. Germany, France in the semifinals, Susie. Who's coming out on top? You do know whoever you say the rest of us are going for the opposite team. Well, yeah, no, as the Spain game was going on, I was thinking, oh no, this is another one of my predictions going awry after they scored.

But yeah, I'm hoping that's ended my drought. Yeah, who do? Yeah, obviously Germany, based on what I said already. I just find it really hard to look past them I mean Austria played a great game against them but they still didn't look too too troubled going through the motions of that game so yeah for me that game is going to be Germany I think France will sort of have a lot of their issues in terms of you you know, kind of personnel being out and stuff and Kototo not being there to finally catch up with them because you may find a few spaces

against a team that is actually defensively not that great, like the Netherlands, but against Germany, they're far more organised. Are we all saying Germany, Kaz? You know, I think, look, again, Tim mentioned it as well, that they've had a variance of opponents, but I don't think they've come up with a team that's so width-reliant in France. They really do go down the flanks in numbers, and I don't think the Germans have faced this yet.

I don't think, you know, the two full-backs, Rauch and Gwyn, have had someone go, right, we're going to run it, yeah, we're going to dominate you, we're going to have Karchawi, we're going to have Cascarino, we're going to have Basha, we're going to dominate down the flanks and run you ragged. And I'm interested to see how they cope with that, whether they'll go like the Spain route or they'll go 4-5-1 or bank up and we'll just protect them as and when.

For me, this will be another test for them in terms of how they deal with the French wings and overloads? Yeah, I very much think Germany will win this. With Katoto, I'd say flip a coin. I honestly would. But without, like I said, there are teams in this tournament that look settled and teams that don't. France would look like a settled team, but they've been thrown a bit of a problem with this Katoto thing because they don't really have a really proper number nine and they brought Mallard in and she's done a good job but not

really the same type of striker and again it's a problem that France are trying to solve on the fly and I think against Germany you would just come unstuck. I mean Germany aren't going to let France put up 4.4xg and France are going to have to take those chances against the

team like Germany and we saw what happened to Spain they had chances against Germany they didn't take them lost 2-0 and I do sense that this game might go in a similar direction to be honest interesting okay so France are making it uh to the final obviously uh that's it for part one of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Coming up in part two, we'll assess Sweden's win over Belgium and look ahead to that semi-final England versus Sweden. So as you know, this podcast is supported by Visa. The Euros is all about the continent's very best competing at the highest level, but getting there and staying there isn't always easy. This is why Visa, on top of being a proud sponsor of UEFA Women's Euro 2022,

is committed to supporting female footballers on and off the pitch. Through initiatives like the Second Half, a career development programme to support female footballers, players like former Reading midfielder Brooke Chaplin were able to think about life after football and importantly, do so before it actually happened. Brooke, lovely to see you. You had a stellar career at the likes of Everton, Sunderland, most recently Reading, of course, but you had to retire pretty abruptly this year.

Can you tell me what happened and exactly how that came about? So unfortunately, I had an incident this season. I was quite lucky, really. I had an injury just before Christmas. And I went for a scan. It was some form of stress fracture. But within the image that I had, they showed a small tumour in one of the bones below my knee. They thought that it was cancerous and the safest option, the one that was the best, was to have my fibula taken out to be certain that obviously the whole tumour was removed. That must have been such a shock for you. Retirement is something that every player obviously is going to face at some point.

You had to face it earlier than you would have liked to. So had you actually already thought about it and put a plan in place? I think when I turned like 30, I started to really think like, what do I want to do? So I obviously signed up to the visa second half and I started a master's. So I had started to think about it, but more in kind of preparation for it happening at some point. But obviously that point came a lot earlier than you wanted. Tell me about what's next for you. So I've taken the general manager role at Reading. So I will be moving into the more business side of the team this year. I'm looking forward to staying in the game

and really hopefully being able to improve it for the females that are coming through. Brilliant stuff. Thank you so much for joining me, Brooke. And best of luck with the new job as well. Thank you. Now back to the show. Welcome back to part two of the guardian women's football weekly so england's semi-final opponents will be the swedes as a stoppage time winner from linda sembrant saw them eventually beat belgium i

mean suzy the sweden attack just is not clicking still in the tournament we've got this far even jonas idavel andld and Kelly Smith on the telly both agreed that they just weren't particularly impressive yeah it's great isn't it from an England point of view although you know you kind of feel like eventually you know a lot of teams will grow into tournaments and eventually something's got to click somewhere and uh we're better than to do it than in a semi-final you've got a feel for Belgium right they had a fantastic game their goalkeeper Nickyiki Everard, was brilliant. But yeah, they're just lacking any kind of cutting edge up top.

I mean, they were just a steed of Black Stidious. I mean, we watched her all season for Arsenal and she's been brilliant, but just it almost looked like she's forgotten where the goal is a little bit, tripping over her feet and things at times. But they need to find the net a little bit more and make the most of their opportunities against Ingrid

if they're going to get through that semi-final. But the thing is, they're such a, generally speaking, well-organised, well-managed team that you think that they will eventually iron out those problems. I don't want to state the obvious, but the aim of the game is to get the ball in the back of the net. Tim, you obviously follow Stina Blaxtenius very closely as an Arsenal fan. What do you make of how she works in this team? Because it feels as if she doesn't get given as much space as she perhaps does

or is able to find when she's playing for Arsenal? Yeah, what Stina's really good at, and one of the things I don't think she gets enough credit for, for Arsenal or for Sweden, is the way she runs those channels really opens up space for others. So in an Arsenal respect, that really opens up space for players like Vivian Miedema and Beth Mead. But I think I said the last time I was on this podcast that the thing is with Sweden they don't want to play those deep block teams they want to play teams that have the ball they want to transition on you to counter on you that's where a player like Stina gets her space and if you just think back to two Sweden games in the last few years when they played USA at the Olympics in 2016 they loved loved that. They loved that game

because they were the underdogs. They were under siege and they just bolted the door. But then you look at the Olympic final last year. They played Canada. They were the favourites. Canada were that organised, deep-blocked team and they couldn't break them down.

I think Sweden are going to be a much more dangerous opponent for England because they're going to really like, both tactically and psychologically I think this is going to be a game far more suited for them than Belgium is. I completely agree with Tim they're a transitional team they like winning in spaces I don't think they're great at creating their own spaces they look nervy you know when Saga's not available they haven't got the link and that's where they look a bit disconnected really because they don't

play through the thirds as much the strange one for me is uh there was a lot of criticism I felt Rolfo you know a lot of people she's not playing well I was a bit like she's played left back all season and we talk about transitions and running spaces I played wing it is so different when you're playing it's a low block team and you're a transitional player and you cannot find spaces. If Rolfo was playing at left back and had the spaces to run into or left wing back, you know, she would be having a different game. And I thought the criticism was a little bit harsh on her, actually. I feel she's a lot more comfortable running from deeper areas,

which is exactly what Tim's alluding to, is they're better when the space is in front of them. England will want the ball. England will want to play. England will want to be big, wide, expansive. That will suit Sweden. They will run in those spaces. But I still think Rolfo should be back in that position where she's bossed it for Barca. Completely agree with you, Kaz, on Rolfo. And Lucy Bronze was saying the exact same thing to us yesterday in a Zoom call she was saying that I know people say that she's maybe not firing at her best at the

tournament so far but a lot of people forget that she's been playing left back, she's scored and assisted in over 15 goals across the season and then she's saying I know my stats I know a lot about her probably more than some people watching this tournament and it's a little bit harder to adapt back into that left wing position.

I think that's a real, real harsh criticism of her. But yeah, I thought it was very, very interesting that Lucy really leapt to her defence on that as well. And has been doing her homework on the player that she's going to go up against. I think as well there, Susie, Lucy's a player that understands she's very similar she likes to run into spaces that other people leave and if Lucy played right wing she would understand that spaces are stifled it's such a different position and when teams up against that if you're up against a quick player you just back off and then all of a sudden they've got decisions to make and they have to adapt and Rolfo hasn't and it's Lucy understands that Lucy's smart and it's

good to see that she's saying hold on a minute think about game intelligence about players and having to change and chop and you know like Lucy said she's completely aware of that and I felt it was a little bit harsh you know if she's got to keep the ball granted Rolfo better but she's been much better if she was playing in a in a back five as a left wing back or a left back in my opinion really interesting although I'm not on board with all of this agreeing the entire She'd be much better if she was playing in a back five as a left wing back or a left back, in my opinion. Really interesting, although I'm not on board with all of this agreeing the entire pod. I agree. I agree. I agree. Come on, more infighting, please. More France. Channel your inner French.

A great quote from Belgian goalkeeper Karen Niki Everard. She has been fantastic this tournament, as have so many of the goalkeepers but she highlighted that Sweden is a team full of professionals and not everybody in her Belgian team is professional she said imagine if we were I hope they're getting the next steps to make women's football in Belgium better you kind of forget that sometimes because we're playing at such a high level but how important is it for us to use this tournament to highlight how much further there is to go still within women's football for some teams yeah I think Northern Ireland spoke about it as well

you know the disparity and resources matter money does matter unfortunately making players professional allowing them to be the best that they can be it's impossible when you're up against professional teams that are well resourced fitter stronger sharper technically tactically better because they have those opportunities so it is really important the game is growing at a significant rate and you know we hope that that support will go into other nations that might not necessarily have as much resource. It is great to see because I said on here earlier, when I turned the TV on, I was nervous as a former player for new audiences to watch the sport,

and I have to say the quality has been brilliant, and even if you look at the WSL players that are part of professional teams, how good the quality and standard and the level is we have to get that across as many nations and across the world as possible to keep our game going. One thing they have got is Tessa Woolliart the captain went back to Belgium to play now I gather a lot of that was kind of a family-based decision as much as anything but I think she's 30 she's played Man City, she's played for Wolfsburg. And I know she does a lot off the pitch as well in terms of training programmes for young women

and things like that. So that's got to be a huge thing that the Belgian league, by hook or by crook, has their best player playing at a good point in her career in that league. And I really hope that is another hook that leads them to kind of readdress the finances and the professionalism of the league in Belgium. Yeah, it's a really good point, Tim. Oh, God, now I'm on it. It's really good. I agree. The big one. Let's look ahead to the moment everyone's talking about next week.

Not the neighbours finale. England-Sweden in the Euros semi-final. Karen, you wrote a brilliant piece this week for The Guardian about how England's win against Spain will have helped the squad. What do you think they'll have learnt from that quarterfinal? Again, to get past a different style of team. Cohesiveness, to go behind, to bounce back, to show resilient moments, to show there's nothing that beats when you walk in that dressing room afterwards and that's what every retired player misses is knowing that you've had

to dig deep you've had to come past big moments you've had to do it together you've relied on just more than your 11 you've saw young managers show emotions that you've never seen before and then all of a sudden you go right this group we're strong now we're getting there we're building we're building we're building, we're building. I think that's what they learned. It was brilliant. And what I like is I felt that we were never going out and they said they weren't.

And I genuinely believe that sometimes people come out in the press and go, yeah, we felt we were never going home. Not one moment did I feel stressed that we were going home. And I think that's really important because all the players at this level are good everyone can run jump pass you know sprint tackle but the difference between the best and the rest is the mentality and if we keep building that we've got an absolute great well we have got a great chance and we've got a good opportunity now. It genuinely feels like they believe in themselves again I spoke to Alex Greenwood yesterday

and she said the same. She didn't believe sitting on the bench that they were going out at all. And I find that incredible because I'm not entirely sure whether that necessarily, and Karen, you'll be able to correct me on this if you think I'm wrong,

but in the past, I feel as if that element of doubt was there. Yeah, sometimes, yeah. But I think the last few tournaments, it's got better. I feel as if that element of doubt was there. Yeah, sometimes, yeah. But I think the last few tournaments, it's got better. The team has got to four consecutive semifinals now, but we have to deliver it now. We have to get to a final.

I remember sitting down with Megan Rapinoe a while back and talking about the mentality of the US team. And that is their mentality, right? It is very much, we always believe we're going to win we believe we are going to win like we could be four nil down in the game but we still believe that we are able to come back and we'll win that game and they may go on to not win a game here and there but overwhelmingly they go into every game genuinely believing that they will win that game and I do think it's interesting that you've got players like Lucy Bronze like Alessia Russo like Lotto Aubamoi and like Serena Vigman who all came through UNC

the University of North Carolina and Anson Durant who was that first coach of the 91 US World Cup winning team and really helped embed that mentality into that squad and then you've got you know years and years later Serena Wiegmann then managing the Netherlands to a World Cup final winning a Euros taking England a really like threatening looking England team to the semi-finals of a Euros she's got that mentality right like and it's a very very american thing but it shouldn't be it's not something that is exclusive to one nation it's just about how you build it and the expectations you have for what you want to do but also the facilities you should have and all that kind of stuff you've got to demand and you've got to believe you're right there's definitely um susie an american you can

tell an american player you can tell the lancet durham player you can tell a player that's played under him and their style and their athletic build as well i'd agree with that but i i think again what america do is they they visualize they create an aura but they back it up and that's sometimes where you go on this as a player like this you just they're so annoying they're like how can they get away with it how can that be a perception of not arrogance the reason why is to back it up and to win so that's what we've got to get to now we we've created our aura let's talk about us we're good we know we can do it we've got to go that that bit further now and and get to a final and win it and then create that going into the world cup going hey this this team this arena veegman team this squad it's gone through a transition because the other day i was thinking worst worst

case scenario that we don't come home winning it which i think we have got a great chance imagine a squad that could go to the world cup next year the young players with the experience now we have to start building that or that hold on a minute america looking at us going wouldn't want to play this england, wouldn't want to face this. They're not fearful. They're not worried. They're visualising winning a World Cup because we can. There's absolutely no question that we can't go and win this Euros

and go and win a transition and win a World Cup, especially with the manager that we've got. And that's really interesting actually because you know what the narrative would be going into the World Cup if we were to win the Euros it would be yeah but they did it on home soil so can they then do it somewhere else it's what happens isn't it it's uh it's grabbed the negative Susie you mentioned Lucy Bronze in your chat with her earlier on but she also spoke about how going out of the 2019 World Cup at the semi-finals at the hands of the USA really

affected her and has said so many times about how much winning a trophy with England would mean to her you can really tell that she's properly fired up for this tournament oh yeah completely and like I think the really interesting thing for me from that chat was that it was a point of her career where she just felt like it was going to go right for her because everything else was you know she was playing the best football she was playing in the best team she was winning loads of trophies one of the best players in the world she was playing on her home soil then in France like next to the stadium that she played in and she said it just felt like it was going to go right so then when it went so wrong it really hit her hard it was going to go right. So then when it went so wrong, it really hit her hard. It was like, this was the moment and it's gone.

And that's given her a different way of looking at this tournament in that you can win things when things aren't going necessarily completely right for you. And you could lose things when things are going 100% right for you. And that's just changed her outlook on tournament football, on England, on how she can win with England sort of almost not rushing it as well so yeah real real interesting conversation I thought you know what as well Susie I think Lucy is unbelievable like one of the best players I've

ever played with best players in the world we had Kelly Smith for me the best player in the world but why Kelly didn't get the recognition she probably deserved and Tim you probably know how good she was as well. She didn't win anything internationally. And we talk about Megan Rapinoe. We talk about, you know, best player because Dave won international. I think Lucy knows that she needs to win something as well. Not to give her the recognition, because she's got that top recognition.

I'm not taking anything away. But again, when you always retire, people always go through your CV and she's won everything but the one thing a player will always want and I've got bronze I've got silver you won a gold medal for your country and I think she knows that and then I think she will get the credit like even more what she deserves and I think that's what Kelly Smith didn't get Kelly was the best player for me but I couldn't do more because we never won anything I don't think she ever got the plaudits that she really really deserved and I think Lucy probably knows that as well unfortunately that's what goes down in the in the history books doesn't it we're in in 20 years time when we've hung up our microphones the new generation are

not necessarily have going to seen Lucy Bronze play live. And they will just look back at that history book, which is a shame. But hopefully not, because on that history book, we intend for her to have at least one European Championship gold medal. Tim, Peter Gerhardsen, the Sweden head coach, said his team's knowledge of the WSL is going to really help them against England. Only England and Northern Ireland have had more WSL players in their squads this Euros. Who do you see coming out on top in this match? So I think this will be a horrible, nervy, tense night on Tuesday night.

I really do. I think Sweden are going to make this so difficult. Personally, I tip Sweden to win it at the outset. Now, I have moderated that a little bit as the tournament's gone on, but I think this is going to be a really, really, really tense, nervy night. But as much as Peter Gerhardsen's right that Sweden have loads of players from the WSL, I mean, that works both ways. Leah Williamson marking Steena Blackstinius and she plays against her every day in training you know Magda Eriksson, Fran Kirby those two come up against each other every day and have done for years and years now so there are going to be a lot of players that know each other inside out but I'm going to go with 2-1 to England after extra time. Interesting so many Sweden fans have made the journey over to the UK they're certainly going to make themselves heard at Bramall Lane, that's for sure.

But where do you think this game is going to be won or lost, Karen, and who's coming out on top for you? I'm going to back England, obviously. I think Tim nailed it spot on. In football, the word suffer is used quite a lot in terms of when a team's up against it. I think Sweden are very used to suffering and dealing with that pressure and coping with it. They'll have a few chances on the transition,

but I think, like Tim said, we're used to that. We have knowledge of it. I can't see anyone getting past Mille Bright at the moment who, for me, has been the best centre-back. So I think that'll be a really interesting battle. But I do think it'll be nervy, I think. But I think with home crowd and I think our attacking and our depth of squad, I think. But I think with home crowd and I think our attacking

and our depth of squad, I think we'll win it. And I'm also giving out player of the match at the game. And I'll please hope that I'm giving it to an England player. I don't want to be coming home all the way back from Sheffield, not winning and not giving it to an England player. And that's nothing against us, Rees, but we've got to win. I almost thought there you were making a very, very early bold prediction for who was going to be player of the match for this game.

I don't pick it. I don't pick it. I'm giving it out, but I'm just like, please, please Lauren Hemp or someone like that. So yeah. Oh,

right. Okay. That's it. Lauren Hemp's going to win it. Wonderful. Susie, what are you going for? Tim said England 2-1 after extra time.

Karen didn't nail her colours to the mast with the scoreline, but said an England win and Lauren Hemp is player of the match. Who are you going for? Like Tim, I had Sweden as my team to win the tournament ahead of the, you know, kind of kickoff at Old Trafford. Well, that bodes well for us. Yeah, exactly. All my starting predictions have been absolutely dire.

So, yeah, that's a good sign. But, yeah, no, I think it's England. And I think something we talked about earlier is going to be a big factor, this extra two days. Yes, England played the extra half an hour, but they've got this extra two-day run into this. You know, you've got John Anderson andannah glass have both been out with covid they've got to recover in that time as well a shorter turnaround time so if it does go to extra time like which team is going to cope with

that better as well i you know i think that is going to be a big part of england edging it too so yeah england for me as well excellent triple England and a fist pump from Karen Tim listen really sad piece of news reaching the world of women's football this week and we couldn't spend this morning talking about the tournament without paying our respects to the wonderful Maria Petri a real stalwart on the terraces for Arsenal, for men's, women's, academy sides. Basically, if it involved Arsenal, she was there. A true icon of the game. Yeah, hugely.

Someone I've known for about 30 years or so, obviously from going to men's and women's games and just one of those people that everyone knew, everyone loved. Just look at the range of people there were tweets from on Friday. FIFA.com tweeted about it. Nearly every Arsenal player put up some kind of post or something like that. And just a real character. And, you know, just a little story about Maria.

She was really gifted with languages. I think she was a French teacher before she retired. There used to be this tournament called the Next Gen, which was like the pre-emptor of the youth champions league and she used to learn how to say something in the language of the visiting team so that when the visiting team came off near the tunnel she'd have like a little bit of a conversation with one of the players and i've heard her do this in about seven different languages wow so like when we played olympia arcos I don't know, about 10 years ago, she just had like a conversation in Greek with their goalkeeper. And, you know, just someone who just took the time for those little touches. And, you know, I know Arsenal wore black armbands last night when they played against Chelsea in a pre-season friendly. And for a team to wear a black armband because of, you know, the demise of a fan, I think that tells you everything.

That doesn't happen very often. Wonderful, wonderful woman and a beautiful tribute from Beth Mead as well. A fan and woman like no other, irreplaceable, a true inspiration and hero. Rest easy. It won't be the same without you. The wonderful Maria Petri, who died aged 82 this week. Well, listen, she's going to miss a barnstormer of a of a match on Tuesday night I'm sure that's going to be nervous for all of us I'd love to know what her message to the Sweden players would be in I met a Swedish woman actually in the park when I

took my son to the swings the other day and she was teaching me some Swedish. One of the words was schnell, which is kind. So hopefully we'll have to give some schnell words to the Swedes afterwards in commiseration for them after the match. But where are we all watching the game, Susie? From the press box. Now I'm not positive anymore. Woo-woo.

Tim? I'm going to be in the Tony Curry stand at Bramall Lane. So yeah, looking forward to that. And my coach back doesn't leave till 4am the next day. So I'll have a few hours in Sheffield in the early hours looking for an open bar. Right. Let me know where you're going to be. Kaz?

You know what? I might need to know where that bar, because all the hotels are booked, so I haven't got anywhere to stay at the moment. So I might be on that all-night bender with you guys when we win. So yeah, go home steamed up maybe. But yeah, I'll be there. I don't know where I'm staying,

but I'll be there in New Jersey and hopefully giving out it to an England player at the end of the game. Look at the Brom coming out there, going home steamed up. Love it. Carry on the way home. I'll bring my Luton with you. Listen, I almost jinxed it because I actually booked my hotel

before the quarterfinal and I was terrified I'd completely jinxed it. Very, very excited. We have a pod Wednesdaynesday morning by the way so uh yeah i won't be getting steamed up because i yeah karen no not you don't worry i've checked the schedule it's not you the fear the fear on your face then was hilarious let us know where you're going to be watching it tweet us at guardians sport suie see you in the press box see you in the press box Tim see you in

the bar absolutely 100% whatever the result Kaz see you steamed up somewhere on a street in

Sheffield oh god don't say that but yeah come on England brilliant stuff we'll be back on Wednesday when

we'll discuss that semi-final between England and Sweden if our nerves can take it we'll look back on Wednesday when we'll discuss that semi-final between England and Sweden if our nerves can take it we'll look ahead to Germany-France as well

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