Football coming home no longer a pressure for Wiegman's England
English anthem was the soundtrack of the Euros three years ago but has been absent in the stands in Switzerland
Three years on from Wembley in 2022, England find themselves back in a European championship final.
This time, it won’t be 87,000 home fans trying to push them over the line. England will have to get it done in an unfamiliar environment – a stadium they haven’t played in at all during Euro 2025.
England fans are travelling to Switzerland in their thousands and will be doing their best to try and create a loud and familiar atmosphere for the Lionesses on Sunday, but nothing will come close to what Sarina Wiegman’s squad stepped out to on 31 July 2022.
With that nervous, excited and expectant Wembley crowd came immense pressure. The weight and expectation was heavy on Wiegman and her team throughout summer 2022.
From the pre-tournament friendly against the Netherlands at Elland Road right through to the final, Wiegman’s players were met with a relentless chorus of ‘Football’s coming home’.
At first, the chant was just an excitable moment at every game, but then it became an expectant buzz. As we all know, England weren’t just carrying the pressure of women’s football, but also that of the entire national team, which hadn’t won a major trophy since 1966.
Once England had secured that European title with a 2–1 win over Germany, they celebrated as if every sliver of pressure had been cast aside – marching into the press conference room with a boombox, dancing on the table and declaring the metaphorical, tongue-in-cheek return of the nation’s game.
That song, which has haunted generations of England’s men’s teams at major tournaments, hasn’t been heard at Euro 2025 – aside from a brief 30-second pre-match rendition at the Lionesses’ 2-1 victory over Italy in the semi-final in Geneva. In the past, any rendition of that song would take off in a major tournament semi-final, but on Tuesday it petered out.
The pressure that song brings also feels like it’s disappeared. Perhaps ‘Freed from Desire’ is the more low-key tune that England need.
The absence of that song feels important – even if just to me. England have a new pressure now: not one of firsts, but of staying at the top.
What may work in their favour is that they also head into Sunday’s final in a very different position to three years ago – they are not favourites.
As soon as Spain beat England 1–0 to become world champions in August 2023, they were crowned the new queens of European women’s football. Since then, even though Spain have only added a Uefa Nations League title to their trophy cabinet, they have become a dominant force in both club and international football.
Not carrying the expectation of a home crowd, and heading into the final of a tournament in which their performances have been inconsistent, might just shift the dynamics of this England team.
There will be no montage of firsts at the final whistle. We’ll get some iconic Robyn Cowen or Seb Hutchinson commentary, but it won’t be about a ‘finally’.
The atmosphere around the England camp – and around Wiegman – has been relaxed too. Maybe it’s because they’ve been here before; they know the routine, the influx of media and attention.
Ella Toone said as much when asked about the pressure on England, three years on from their home success.
“I think we don't have that pressure on ourselves. I think the only pressure that we have is the one that you put on yourself individually. We're all very competitive athletes who want to win and want to play well every single game. So the pressure is just the stuff that we put on ourselves, but when we came into this tournament, we said that we wanted to make nation proud, and I think we've done that already. We've reached a final for the third time in a row, and that's something that we can hold our heads high and we should be proud of.
“We know that no matter what we do, we're always inspiring the next generation of young girls and boys starting out in their journey. So yeah, no pressure from our side. We're definitely blocking that out, and we'll make sure that we prepare properly for the game on Sunday”.
The more England have tasted high-pressure games, the more refined and calm the squad has become – especially when it comes to answering questions from the media and fans.
There’s also been an anxiety about England’s performances in Switzerland. The arrogance and confidence that was perhaps there in the lead-up to, and during, Euro 2022 disappeared as soon as England lost their opening game to France. They’ve had to fight, rely on a little bit of luck, and they haven’t had the momentum that carried them through to that Wembley final.
The narrative has no longer been about football coming home; it’s been a rollercoaster journey of trying to keep football alive.
Wiegman didn’t give much away when asked whether there is a tangible difference in the pressure she feels before Sunday’s final and what it felt like three years ago. “I think every tournament, of course, you want to perform, and there's expectations, but you also have expectations for yourself,” she said at England’s pre-match press conference at the St Jakob-Park stadium on Saturday.
“I just know that going into a final is already very, very special. Making the final, there's only two teams that can make the final. So if you talk about pressure, that's not really a pressure, it's very special.”
This time, it does feel different. All of England will still be wishing and willing the Lionesses to succeed on Sunday, but they don’t carry the burden of three years ago.