Sarina Wiegman: England Women’s head coach reflects on winning Euro 2025, the impact of Hannah Hampton and Thomas Tuchel | Football news

As Sarina Wiegman reflects on Euro 2025, a smile appears on her face.

“It’s still strange. Did it really happen?” admits the usually stoic England head coach. “To be honest, it makes me very emotional.

“These matches were so crazy in their development. It was different from other tournaments we played, so I was very emotional. It was so special.”

Player withdrawals, injury doubts, an early defeat, comeback victories and penalties defined England’s journey to becoming back-to-back European champions.

Months later, Wiegman sat down with Sky Sports News to tell his tale of the most spectacular tournament victory in modern history. Recalling preparations for the tournament, Wiegman said “there was a lot going on.”

That’s an understatement.

Mary Earps decided to retire after being relegated to second choice goalie. Fran Kirby did the same after discovering she was not part of Wiegman’s immediate plans and former captain Millie Bright opted to take a break instead of going to Switzerland.

Add to that that five presumed starters were doubtful of participating in the tournament due to injury.

Lauren James, Georgia Stanway, Alex Greenwood, Lauren Hemp and Lucy Bronze all went out of their way to get on the plane, something Wiegman is immensely proud of.

“We had five pretty serious injuries to players who played a lot of minutes and they worked really hard to come back. It’s very special that all five players made it through,” she said.

“A player can get injured and not be available. A player can retire and not be available. The reason is different, the result is the same: who is the next person to step up?”

The problem with having almost half the original squad returning was that England were undercooked before the tournament and that showed in their defeat to France in their opening match.

Harsh words were spoken, realities laid bare and changes made to training. England were feeling down after losing to one of the tournament favorites, but Wiegman wasn’t going to let that happen again.

“We didn’t take our penalties very well against Sweden”

Every ounce of determination and confidence in the team was needed in the quarter-final against Sweden.

“Boom, in 30 minutes we were down 2-0,” remembers Wiegman. “Okay, it’s a game like this. We said at halftime, ‘we can still change this game’.”

Chloe Kelly came on to set up goals for Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang to take the match to penalties. Chaos ensued with nine missed shots on goal.

“We didn’t take them very well. I told Arjen [Veurink, former England assistant head coach] ‘wow’, or I said something louder like ‘we might be on a plane tomorrow’.”

The bronze, however, beat the English winners on home soil to make it a night to remember in Zurich.

“I’ve never experienced a game like this, but what got us through it was how connected this team was. We were together in 2022 and 2023, but this team took it to a new level. There was a lot of confidence in this team and the team cohesion gave us that extra edge.”

“We knew we were better on penalties than Spain”

England needed that unity in the semi-final to overcome another deficit and beat Italy in overtime to reach their third consecutive major tournament final.

The country that beat England in the 2023 World Cup final stood in Wiegman’s path.

“Okay, we’re playing Spain. They’re the best in possession, it’s nice to watch, but they have vulnerabilities that we tried to exploit,” the Lionesses coach said, looking back on the game plan.

Wiegman admits England ‘struggled’ after Mariona Caldentey put the world champions ahead. But they regained momentum after the break and equalized through Alessia Russo’s header.

Once again, England led a huge match on penalties. People call shootouts a lottery — but that’s a cliché Wiegman knew didn’t apply to his camp.

“We had an advantage, we knew it,” she said. “They were disappointed to be in this position. We have experience and we know we can do it. We know we are better than them on penalties.

“And we also had Hannah.”

“I’m so proud of Hannah.”

When Hannah Hampton saved Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati’s penalty, a realization swept through St. Jacques Park. England were on the verge of becoming European champions again.

England wouldn’t have lifted the trophy without their number 1. The Chelsea goalkeeper made big saves throughout the tournament, not just in penalties. Her cast also added a dimension to the Lionesses that they never had before.

That’s something even more remarkable given the attention Hampton received after Earps’ shock retirement. Hampton was also grieving after the death of his grandfather two days before the competition began.

“I’m really, really proud of her,” Wiegman says. “She was in great shape and also had some personal issues to deal with before the tournament. She did a really good job, she’s incredible.”

“Tuchel knows what he wants to do next summer”

Hampton and the rest of the team celebrated hard after the Euro victory.

An unforgettable evening in Zurich was followed by a trip to Downing Street before the celebrations outside Buckingham Palace.

“You see 70,000 people cheering for you, you say to yourself ‘this isn’t real. What’s going on here?'”, recalls the Lionesses coach.

Unexpectedly, we saw another side of the usually cool Dutch girl at the party at the Mall. Wiegman, live on television, danced and sang with Burna Boy much to the surprise of everyone in the audience.

“My daughters were there but I didn’t know it. While we were singing and dancing Georgia [Stanway] I said “your daughters are here” and I saw them and ran towards them. It made me even more excited,” she said. “You don’t see a lot of things like this. I was really enjoying myself.”

Wiemgan would also like the England men to win a major trophy at this summer’s World Cup in North America. She meets Thomas Tuchel from time to time, but insists he doesn’t need her advice.

“Oh, he knows,” Wiegman joked. “We meet from time to time and he is very excited too. He knows exactly what he wants to do this summer.”

He wouldn’t go wrong by following Wiegman’s model of success.

If 2025 has taught him anything, it’s how to face adversity, setbacks and chaos, while still ending up with another medal around your neck.