City players help England advance to the Euro finals

England has advanced to the finals of the Women’s European Championships final after resoundingly beating Sweden 4-0 this evening.

Goals from Beth Mead, Lucy Bronze, Alessio Russo and Fran Kirby helped the home nation beat the wasteful Swedes, who had the best of the early chances and could have been well in front by half-time.

City players Keira Walsh, Lauren Hemp and Ellen White all started the game, with Walsh and Hemp playing their part in everything good about England in the first half, particularly their attacking intent.

Recently departed players Georgia Stanway (gone to Bayern Munich) and Bronze (Barcelona bound, apparently) also started from the beginning, with the former World Player of the Year scoring just after the break.

Her header from a deep corner went through the legs of multiple players to find the bottom corner to give England a comfortable lead and put some comfort in their game.

That lead allowed Walsh more freedom to spread the ball throughout the midfield and to the flanks for Hemp and Mead to work their magic. The deep midfielder was fantastic in her passing and breaking lines for the Lioness attackers to exploit and run at the Scandinavian defence.

A clever back-heel from Russo and an error from the Swedish goalkeeper rounded off the victory to make the difference in teams wider than initial predictions.

https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1552031589202366472

Sweden came into this game with a strong chance as the world-ranked number two team and on an impressive run, however England’s clinical side, quality and home support were enough to make football one step from ‘coming home’.

City’s Flippa Angeldahl had a torrid game in the yellow shirt as she was often overrun while Alex Greenwood and Chloe Kelly entered the final minutes to add more City players on the pitch.

The Lionesses, who extended their unbeaten run to 19 games under manager Sarina Wiegman, will play either Germany or France for the ultimate prize at Wembley on 31 July.

Hopefully, the City players can play their part, big or small, in the victory just as they did tonight.