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Nick Ames was in Geneva, which looked a picture yesterday, soaking up the atmosphere among England’s fans.
Legends are made on nights such as this. England’s travelling supporters celebrated deliriously long after the final whistle; huge sections of the venue had already dissolved into a mush of limbs when Agyemang struck. Those fans will be able to march proudly, expectantly, one last time before the tournament decider in Basel.
Hundreds of them had assembled at a fanzone near Lancy-Pont-Rouge station to take the mile-long walk towards the stadium, counting down before setting off at 6.45pm to trumpets and beating drums. There had been plenty to entertain them while they waited, including an impromptu limbo dancing competition between tied-together English and Italian flags. This being Geneva, food stalls selling chips and hot dogs were joined by another offering oysters, salmon tartare and moules frites.
Greetings all. Get up to much last night? I’m sure you did, particularly if “sitting on the sofa, fretting” constitutes “much”. So, England and Sarina Wiegman are in yet another final. How they got there I don’t know, how they got there I don’t care etc, as the song goes. Yep, it was another nailbiter, where persistence and pressure in the end overcame Italy’s tactical nous and canny gameplan.
Were England lucky? Possibly, but they didn’t burgle the win in quite the way they did against a demonstrably superior Sweden, and a personal view is that Wiegman’s side just about deserved it, for persistence and composure as well as a couple of properly enterprising spells of pressure at the start of each normal-time half. Jonathan Liew, someone with whom I rarely disagree about anything, has a more critical (and knowledgable) perspective, mind.
Anyway, this blog won’t only be looking back on last night but looking ahead to tonight’s intriguing second semi-final between tournament favourites Spain and a Germany whose progress has not been dissimilar to England’s. Another rearguard looms against the best possession-based passing side in the world.
Anyway, feel free to mail in thoughts, predictions, tactical insights and more.
