Women’s World Cup final: How England became good at women’s football

Former Manchester United player Phil Neville was appointed in January 2018, despite no previous experience in the women’s game. He won the SheBelieves Cup in 2019 and England came fourth in that year’s World Cup in France.

But a dip in results followed, with seven defeats in his last 11 games amid some fixture disruption due to the Covid pandemic, left Neville’s record and England progress being questioned – especially against the best sides.

When he left for Inter Miami in January 2021, six months before his contract was due to end, Baroness Sue Campbell, the FA’s director of women’s football, praised his “significant contribution” to raising the “profile” and “championing” the women’s game.

But when the FA announced Sarina Wiegman would succeed Neville as England’s head coach in September 2021, they knew they were bringing in a “proven winner”.

Having led the Netherlands to the European title in 2017, and the World Cup final two years later, she had the track record of “building a winning team”.