SShe has won leagues and cups, she was captain of the Dutch national team, but when Sarina Wiegman thinks back to her playing career, there are also regrets. “I don’t think I enjoyed it enough as a player,” said the coaches of the England national football team before the European Championship: “I worked so hard. You are there doing what you love most. you are doing your best So why don’t you have fun too?” She now wants to create an environment for her players in which they can enjoy playing football. But in return, she expects the players to give their all when it counts.
In the group stage of the European Championship, that worked very well for the English. They beat Austria 1-0 in the opening game, humiliated the ambitious Norwegians 8-0 and beat Northern Ireland 5-0 at the final whistle. In the last game, nothing was at stake because England had already been confirmed as group winners. This Wednesday evening (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship) they meet Spain in the quarter-finals, which finished second behind Germany in Group B.
