A closer look at England’s impressive 30-match unbeaten run under Sarina Wiegman
The Lionesses were not beaten for 30 matches.
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Your support makes all the difference.Australia inflicted Sarina Wiegman’s first defeat as England coach in Tuesday’s friendly in Brentford.
It follows a 30-game unbeaten start and the Lionesses’ first major trophy at Euro 2022 and here, the PA news agency looks back at the impressive run.
World Cup qualifying
It took just 12 minutes for Ella Toone to score the first goal of Wiegman’s reign in an 8-0 win over North Macedonia.
There were 10 in the return fixture, home and away to Luxembourg and in Latvia, with an astonishing 20 in the home game against the latter – including Lauren Hemp’s first four international goals and hat-tricks also for Beth Mead, Ellen White and Alessio Russo.
Qualification was secured after a perfect 10 wins and 80 goals without reply, Mead leading the way with 13 while White – despite retiring before the final two games – and Toone scored 10 each.
Arnold Clark Cup
A high-level preparation event for the Euros saw England’s first draws of the Wiegman era, 1-1 against Canada and 0-0 against Spain.
They still won the trophy after beating Germany 3-1, with late goals from Millie Bright and Fran Kirby after Lina Magull cancelled out White’s opener.
They defended their title in 2023 against a less formidable line-up of South Korea, Italy and Belgium, captain Leah Williamson dedicating the title to the injured Mead and her late mother June.
Euro 2022
A tense opening win over Austria was forgotten by half-time in the next game, with England already six goals to the good en route to a staggering, swaggering 8-0 rout of well-fancied Norway. Victory over Northern Ireland, with Wiegman absent with Covid-19 and assistant Arjan Veurink directing from the dugout, completed the group stage.
Spain gave them a quarter-final scare with Esther Gonzalez’s opener before Toone equalised late on and Stanway scored a stunning extra-time winner.
Sweden were comprehensively dispatched 4-0 in the semi-final and though Toone’s wonderful Wembley opener was cancelled out by another Magull equaliser, Chloe Kelly had the decisive say.
Finalissima
That earned England a place in the newly-created Finalissima against South American champions Brazil, played at Wembley in front of over 83,000 fans.
Toone put England ahead in the first half but Mary Earps gifted a late equaliser to Andressa Alves to take the game to penalties. Toone’s weak effort was saved but Earps saved from Tamires and Rafaelle hit the bar before Kelly again produced the winning Wembley moment.
Friendlies
Wiegman’s warm-up schedule for the home Euros took in wins over fellow qualifiers Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The highlight came against the manager’s home country as they recovered from falling behind for the first time under Wiegman to win 5-1. Lucy Bronze took just 10 minutes to cancel out Lieke Martens’ goal before Mead struck twice to sandwich two in two minutes from Toone and Hemp.
Another feather in Wiegman’s cap came after the Euro 2022 win as her continental champions beat world champions the United States 2-1 at a sold-out Wembley, but they were then held by the Czech Republic and Norway before goals from Sam Kerr and Charlotte Grant gave Australia a 2-0 win.
Overall record and scorers
Wiegman won 25 games and drew five before Tuesday’s setback, with her side scoring 138 goals and conceding 12 with Australia the first side to score twice in a game against them.
Mead was the top scorer with 21 goals in that period with Toone contributing 14, White and Stanway 13 each, Russo 11 and Hemp 10.
Twenty different England players have scored altogether for Wiegman, in addition to six opposition own goals.