With a record 14 million viewers expected to witness the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 semifinal match against Sweden tonight, England fans, including David Beckham and Michael Owen, are rooting for their side to win.
It is anticipated that fans will spend £100 million on food, alcohol, and memorabilia.
Sarina Wiegman, the team’s manager, has urged fans to cheer her team to victory as they attempt to break their recent semi-final losing streak in Sheffield this evening.
Tens of thousands of fans will descend on fan zones around England, notably in Trafalgar Square, to support the Lionesses, with Michael Owen joining the chorus of celebrities who are wishing them luck.
Lane is anticipated to be packed.
A visibly tanned and “happy” David Beckham hailed the squad for inspiring millions of girls, including his daughter Harper, who he said will be “watching tonight,” in a video from what looked to be his boat in Saint-Tropez, where he is vacationing with Victoria and their kids.
In addition to using social media to express their support, fans who were among the lucky 32,050 people to receive tickets to the game also tracked their travels to South Yorkshire.
However, it is expected that the bulk of viewers would stay at home and spend £100 million, including £90 million on food and alcohol at big-box stores to enjoy while watching the game.
Following a victory over Spain in overtime the previous week, England takes on Sweden in Sheffield, with 14 million fans expected to watch the match on BBC1 at 8 o’clock.
The team is expected to get to the final and would set a record for women’s football in the UK.
According to a study by VoucherCodes.co.uk, fans will spend an additional £7 million on official gear, £2.8 million on other stuff, and more than $1 million on a new car for the final at Wembley on Sunday, in addition to the £90 million they will spend on food and drink.
According to Waitrose, unlike before an England men’s match, beer and chips were not the greatest sellers before the big game.
Instead, consumers have chosen rosé wine and popcorn.
Sales of rosé have increased significantly during the tournament, and this week’s top three selling wines are all pink.
Wiegman claimed they are not dwelling on the past as they attempt to secure their spot at Wembley for the Euros final, despite the fact that the last three championships have all ended in defeat at the same point.
Sarina Wiegman asserted, “I believe being in the present is essential.”
“I do believe that you should always take something away from an experience in order to grow and learn.
“But continuing to bring up that subject is now useless.
The England team is prepared to play its best game against Sweden tomorrow and, perhaps, motivate the country.
It’s going to be a really close game, in my opinion. In the FIFA rankings, they are ranked second.
We are aware of their impressive recent performances because they have consistently excelled in the women’s game.
Reaching the semi-finals has already been fantastic; we saw that we inspired a lot of people, but I also believe that our supporters inspired us a lot.
“I’m hoping they’ll give us a lot of energy once more.
“What we received at our most recent games was truly an additional dimension.
That’s incredibly thrilling, and we hope we can win their approval once more.
Live broadcasts of England’s semifinal will be shown in Trafalgar Square and numerous fan parks across the nation.
The support from the home audience, according to Millie Bright, who participated in England’s last two semi-final failures, has been essential.
“It’s the answer we’ve been hoping for and wanting in the women’s game,” the author says.
The attendance during this tournament, in my opinion, has been incredible.
It demonstrates the development of the game and the course we aim to take moving forward.
Wiegman and Bright responded coolly to inquiries about the significance of the game tonight, but Sweden came out swinging in their criticism of UEFA’s use of VAR in the competition.
Goals scored by Peter Gerhardsson’s team against Switzerland and Belgium were disallowed for offside, however former Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson claimed the VAR lines had been drawn improperly.
“If you’re talking about the complaint that our employees made, it’s evident,” Gerhardsson said.
“We haven’t seen it ourselves but a Swedish referee at home in a studio pointed us that they drew the line incorrectly.”
“My impression is that sometimes we put too much reliance in VAR.
You don’t know if it’s a goal or not until the referee blows the “game on” whistle.
We will have to pray that they have considered how they can get better for tomorrow’s semi-final.
Additionally, Sweden asserted that UEFA employs 50% less cameras than are used for the men’s game.
Kosovre Asllani, a forward, stated: “Using 50% fewer cameras in our tournament than in the men’s game is really a catastrophe because the decisions can’t be made with the same precision.
It’s not just for us, there are other teams, and there are situations where you should have more cameras and it can be really decisive.”
Due to the ties between the two teams, families are divided over the game.
While on vacation visiting his wife Susanna’s extended family in Jonkoping, Sweden, Damion Potter, 47, claimed he will be the “lone person with the England shirt” as he gets ready to watch the game.
‘We still need to work out a bet between my wife and myself, but so far we’re thinking someone has to jump in the river for whichever team loses,’ the former diplomat told the PA news agency.
“I’ll be rooting for England and hoping the Lionesses win everything,” you said.
Everyone else will be rooting for Sweden except for myself and potentially my children, depending on the outcome, so I’ll be the only one wearing an England jersey.
May the best group triumph.
The pressure is off their three children, Elliot, 18, Zackary, 17, and Maya, 14, despite the competitiveness of the pair.
In the 2016 men’s World Cup match between England and Sweden, Mr. Potter remarked: “It was funny to see our three kids start supporting Sweden and by the conclusion of the match, all three of them were supporting England.
The good news for my kids is that whoever prevails in the semifinals will have a squad competing in the championship.
Even with the intra-family conflict, football has always been a part of the Potter family’s great moments.
21 years have passed since Mr. and Mrs. Potter were wed, and on their wedding day in November 2001, England played Sweden.
Mr. Potter characterized the game’s one-all draw as a “excellent diplomatic result.”
Even though Mr. Potter has been a sports lover since he was 10 years old, he didn’t watch his first women’s World Cup until after the birth of his first kid.
“My first son was born at the end of September 2003, two weeks before the World Cup, and wasn’t sleeping at night so I worked the night shift and ended up watching nearly every game,” he said.
Victoria Svensson of Sweden, who won the Golden Boot that year, worked as a maintenance worker at the British embassy in Stockholm, where I also had a job.
I became obsessed with men’s and women’s football after that, especially for the major championships.
Mr. Potter continued by expressing his hope that the “momentum and excitement” around the women’s games will last.
There are more women and girls playing football now than there were when he was in school, he said.
Her ability to play football at school is vital to me as a father of teenage boys and a 14-year-old daughter.
‘I mean, there’s still a ways to go, but I’m really happy that in the UK we’re seeing this year’s Euros on primetime television, the back pages are showing the lionesses doing well, and the stadiums are filled around the UK,’ the author said.
“I believe being hosts helps, but I hope that that continues just like it has with all this momentum and excitement,” said the speaker.
Final Euro 2022
The team preventing England from reaching their first major final since 2009 is Sweden.
The Lionesses lost to the United States in the 2019 World Cup, the Netherlands in Euro 2017, and Japan in the 2015 World Cup in the semifinal round of the three most recent competitions.
England will enter Tuesday night’s game as the slight favorite due to home field advantage.
Sarina Wiegman’s team will face their biggest test yet from the highest-ranked team in the tournament, the Swedes.
Sweden, which placed second at the Tokyo Olympics and third at the 2019 World Cup, will be eager to advance this summer.
The Swedes are undoubtedly the most well-rounded team in the league, despite the fact that they might not have a moniker that stands out.
They play attackingly with efficiency, physicality, and organization.
The Sweden team includes a ton of well-known players, with seven of them presently competing in the Women’s Super League.
Their captain and stalwart at the defense is Chelsea defender Magdalena Eriksson.
The forward from Denmark and Chelsea who is Eriksson’s partner Pernille Harder might be watching from the stands to offer moral support.
As a result of Spain’s 1-0 victory over Denmark in the group’s last match, Denmark almost lost out on a spot in the knockout rounds.
Harder and Eriksson, hailed as one of football’s “power couples,” have been together since 2014 and have made names for themselves both on and off the field.
The couple’s on-field embrace during the 2019 World Cup in France went viral on social media and quickly rose to the status of a majorly significant moment for both the sport and the LGBT community.
In an interview with Forbes in 2020, Eriksson stated, “Neither Pernille or I had an intention to become LGBT role models.”
When we first started dating, “We were just fairly open from the start.
“Since then, we’ve both had prosperous careers, developed into icons, and established ourselves as household names.
It sort of just occurred.
It was crucial for us to be genuine and not try to hide anything. Showing others that’s how it ought to be.
We want the world to be like that.
We want everyone to be themselves because that is how we also want to be.
Harder subsequently admitted, “I didn’t know there was a photographer there, so I didn’t even know about the shot.
“Like we had done previously after other matches, it was only a short kiss.
This time, there was a camera, which caused a chain of events that resulted in the photo being shared on social media and receiving a ton of comments, the majority of which were quite favorable.
It helped us realize that we are role models in many ways than only football.
We have come to terms with it because we recognize how fortunate we are to feel secure and at ease while dating someone who knows about our connection.
“If we can support others in being who they are, we want to.
“The couple’s most recent display of embracing their public persona was the March release of the short film “Love Always Wins.”
As one of the only Albanian football players competing at the highest level in women’s soccer, Kosovare Asllani, an Eriksson teammate from Sweden, too feels like she is a role model, but for completely different reasons.
She is the child of Kosovan immigrants who immigrated to Sweden, and Asllani has made it a priority to help her keep her family history in mind.
She has a tattoo of the double-headed black eagle of Albania on her ankle, and her first name, which is a translation of the word “girl from Kosovo,” is an illustration of that.
She now serves as the embodiment of immigrants in Sweden thanks to this.
In 2017, she admitted to Morning Star Online, “I absolutely feel like a role model.
“I receive numerous messages. Because I’m one of the few Albanian female football players to have competed at the highest level, my parents tell me that young people greatly look up to me.
“I was born in Sweden, but at the same time I’m really proud of my heritage, that my parents were born and raised in Kosovo, I’m both Albanian and Swedish,” Blackstenius said.
Blackstenius is a quick and skilled forward with a good eye for goal, though she has had a few goals disallowed for slight offsides.
Midfield poses a concern as well.
Filippa Angeldahl of Manchester City scored twice against Portugal, and Hanna Bennison of Everton produced an incredible goal to defeat Switzerland.
Bennison might end up being the game-winner after helping Sweden narrowly defeat Belgium.
After a varied playing career, Sweden manager Peter Gerhardsson is the one who is tying everything together.
After scoring 70 goals in his professional career, he started coaching as a PE instructor at a high school football academy.
After that, opportunities to serve as an assistant coach in both the men’s and women’s games eventually presented themselves.
He was hired to coach the Sweden national team at various young levels.
He eventually rose to the position of head coach of BK Hacken in Sweden’s top men’s division, and in 2017, he was appointed head coach of the women’s national team, which he had previously guided to third place at the World Cup three years prior.
“I grew up in a family who taught me how Albanian music is listened to in Kosovo.
“My favorite. We’re not a terrible nation.
Stina Blackstenius, an Arsenal striker and fellow forward, is in charge of the Swedish front line.
Blackstenius began playing football with her older brother Oscar on a squad that her father Magnus coached, but she didn’t decide to make football her career until she was 15 years old.
He now believes that his team’s WSL expertise will help them defeat the Lionesses on Tuesday night.
After his team’s victory over Belgium in the quarterfinals, Gerhardsson commented, “I think we are really difficult to beat physically.
We also have players in our group that compete at the club level in England, so they are familiar with the game.
It will be crucial to remember that event.
They frequently play them in the league, so they are aware of what to expect.
That experience will be very significant to me.
Fridonlina Rolfo, a Barcelona attacker who can also play as an offensive left wing back, is another danger that England must watch out for.
Should Lucy Bronze get caught off guard, she might try to attack England’s right side.
The forward’s advantages are well known to Bronze, who will team up with Rolfo at Barcelona the following year.
Bronze remarked, “I believe she scored and contributed in over 15 goals or assists throughout the season.”
“I am aware of my statistics and I am knowledgeable about her, possibly more so than some of the tournament viewers.
“It’s not always the most pleasant wingers to play up against when they actually know how to defend properly, but [she’s] a player that can play both left back and left wing so well that she’ll be a threat in both offense and defense.
It’s a player I’ve frequently faced up against. Previously, when we were both Wolfsburg and Lyon, we occasionally engaged in a small side conflict. In a few weeks, I’m looking forward to playing with her as well as against her.