By Tim Reedijk
Just after her successful years with the Orange women, Wiegman also started her life as national coach of the English football women (eighth in the FIFA world rankings, Orange is fourth). The numbers don’t lie for tonight. In the World Cup qualifiers, Wiegman recorded victories in her first two international matches against North Macedonia (8-0) and Luxembourg (0-10).
Northern Ireland is considered slightly higher than those two countries, also won the first two qualifiers, but lost an exhibition game to England 6-0 in February of this year. Yet tonight it was mainly about the fact that the English women’s football played at Wembley again, this time with commitment for the first time.
In 2014 and 2019, England already practiced in friendly matches against Germany, with the last international match in particular being one for the history books due to the presence of more than 77,000 supporters at a women’s football match. England lost both matches.
So for the first time there was now played for ‘echie’, in the World Cup qualifiers, and it immediately resulted in the first victory of the English football women at Wembley (since the stadium reopened in 2007). Under the watchful eye of 23,225 supporters it became 4-0. It was striking that all the goals were scored by substitutes.
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