LONDON — After a dominant first half, England sagged against Brazil in the inaugural Finalissima and ultimately needed four strong penalties to claim the title. But it could have all gone wrong for Sarina Wiegman’s team at Wembley in a match which pitted Europe’s and South America’s reigning champions, and the result potentially served as a wakeup call ahead of the World Cup.
Attacking a Brazilian back-five, Wiegman’s favoured front three of Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo and Lauren James — who was preferred over Chloe Kelly — had little trouble causing all sorts of headaches for the visiting defence. Indeed, the first half was a tale of English dominance as the Lionesses had full control of the midfield, and could keep Brazil contained.
There was a deserved swagger to England, buoyed on by the 83,132 strong crowd who gotten used to watching the Lionesses put on a show, especially at Wembley. It was very much the staple of the Wiegman era, the calm dominance and ability to get numbers into the box without too much stress as to how the ball would end up in the onion bag — just the knowledge and belief that it would.
And for England, it very much almost always did. With so much time and space to work with as well as being able to bring in almost all of their outfield players into the attack and build-up, it was about picking their moments. Knowing when to look for Russo through the centre and when others should look to pull the trigger after working enough space.
The first real chance fell to marauding full-back Lucy Bronze who drove towards the Brazilian goal, only to be denied by Letícia Santos’ meaty paw. But it was a warning of things to come for the Copa America champions, with a shot from behind the forward line their subsequent undoing.
A rare foray forward for Brazil, that was punctuated with scruffy passes and missed clearances, saw the South Americans carve out their first chance with Jess Carter’s big toe enough to divert Geyse’s effort out for a corner. It would end up being the visitors’ only bright spot of the half as England’s rapid attack saw the ball bounce from one pair of boots to the next without dwelling, which ended up with Santos picking the ball out of the back of her net.
From James to Bronze to Georgia Stanway and back to Bronze before the defender cut the ball through to Ella Toone who let fly, forcing Russo to jump out of the way of the shot, taking Santos by surprise as the path in front of her cleared for the ball.
One could have been two moments later when James brought the ball down with a silky touch before rifling it into the roof of the net only for a belated flag to go up against the entire forward line that had strayed offside.
