Women’s World Cup 2023: Lionesses Boss Sarina Wiegman says leading England to a first Women’s World Cup final is a “fairytale”.

Having led the Netherlands to the 2019 showpiece, Wiegman is the first coach to lead two countries to the final of the tournament, after England’s 3-1 win over Australia in the semi-finals.

Wiegman said, “It’s unbelievable that we made the final.”.

As a member of the Netherlands team in 2017 and England team in 2022, she also achieved back-to-back wins at the Women’s Euros.

“It feels like we won it [the whole tournament], but we didn’t win it,” said Wiegman, 53.

As a result of her two triumphs at the European Championships and a 2-0 loss to the United States in the 2019 World Cup final, she has now reached four major tournament finals in a row.

The opportunity to make it to the finals is really special – we’ve already made it to four,” said Wiegman after England’s semi-final victory.

Despite never taking anything for granted, it feels like I’m living in a fairytale.

As we made the first final in 2017 [with the Netherlands], we thought it might never happen again. Then we made the second, third and fourth and thought it might never happen again.

The men’s side won the 1966 World Cup, so England will be playing in a first final since that time.

In Wiegman’s words, “I cannot describe how proud I am of the team.”.

Our team has adapted all the time. Before the tournament, during the tournament, then this game again – how we came through and won again is incredible.”

The Lionesses had reached two successive semi-finals under Mark Sampson and Phil Neville before Wiegman took over.

Despite that, they lost on both occasions – to Japan in 2015 by a score of 2-1, and to the United States in 2019 by the same margin.

During Wiegman’s tenure, England has won 30 of its 38 games, the Arnold Clark Cup twice, the Euros trophy once, and the inaugural Women’s Finalissima.

Despite a 30-game unbeaten run under the Dutchwoman, they suffered their only defeat in April against Australia.

The England manager delivered “another masterclass” in the semi-final win, according to former England international Izzy Christiansen.

In describing Sarina Wiegman, Christiansen ran out of superlatives.