SHEFFIELD —- England’s women emulated the men last year by reaching their European Championship Final after outrunning Sweden 4-0 in Sheffield. They will play Germany or France in the final at Wembley on Sunday. The last time England reached the final was in 2009 when they lost to Germany.

An attendance of 28,624 saw Sarina Wiegman’s team recover to win after a shaky start when Sweden’s Stina Blackstenius hit the bar.

Beth Mead, already leading the race for the Golden Boot, put the Lionesses ahead with a 34th-minute strike that took her to six goals for the tournament.

Mead then turned provider early in the opening moments of the second half, delivering a corner that was headed in by Lucy Bronze, before substitute Alessia Russo’s backheeled strike which was a dramatic contender for goal of the tournament.

Victory on Sunday would secure England women’s first major trophy. They were runners-up at both the inaugural Euro in 1984 and then again in 2009. First time around they lost on penalties to Sweden and 13 years ago they crashed 6-2 to Germany.

Triumphing on Sunday would also mean back-to-back Euros successes for boss Wiegman, who, after overseeing her native Netherlands winning the 2017 edition on home soil and then reaching the 2019 Word Cup final, has had an England tenure that remains unbeaten after 19 matches, with 17 wins, 104 goals scored and only four conceded.

The sense the team are on the brink of something special was certainly tangible among England fans in the 28,624 crowd at the stadium, with chants of “football’s coming home” reverberating around the ground at various points.

Same again

Wiegman again kept faith in the team who started each of England’s four previous matches at the tournament, while world number two-ranked Olympic silver-medallists Sweden, who triumphed 2-1 in the third-place play-off between the teams at the 2019 World Cup, had a line-up showing two changes as Peter Gerhardsson brought in forward Sofia Jakobsson and defender Hanna Glas.

The Swedes threatened in the opening seconds as Jakobsson was played in and saw her strike saved by Mary Earps’ boot, before Mead glanced a fourth-minute header wide at the other end from Kirby’s cross.

There were further scares for England soon after, Blackstenius bringing another save out of Earps, then heading against the bar from the resulting corner, and Fridolina Rolfo shooting into the hosts’ side-netting.

As Wiegman’s side then started to build some momentum, Ellen White and Georgia Stanway saw efforts gathered by Hedvig Lindahl, while Bronze headed a corner wide.

Mead repeat

They then grabbed the lead just after the half-hour mark when Hemp’s cross evaded White, Bronze delivered the ball back into the danger zone and Mead turned and fired past Lindahl to add yet another goal to her haul and bring a huge roar from the crowd.

Stanway and Kirby each sent ambitious shots off-target before the break as England sought to boost their advantage.

The second goal did then arrive three minutes after the interval as Bronze headed home from Mead’s corner, the effort being confirmed after a VAR check for offside.

Sweden attempted to hit back, with Blackstenius heading wide, Hemp almost made it 3-0, seeing her shot come back off the bar, and Earps did well to tip over a Blackstenius effort as Gerhardsson’s team pushed again.

Brilliant Russo

England’s job then appeared all but done when Russo once again made a mark after replacing White, beating Lindahl with a fantastic back-heel through the goalkeeper’s legs after she had parried her initial shot.

And it did not take long for the advantage to be extended further – and more singing to break out in the stands – as Kirby collected the ball from Mead and crafted a chipped attempt that Lindahl got gloves to but could not prevent going into the net.

Russo put an effort wide late on before the final whistle saw the noise level up once again as England were confirmed as Wembley-bound.

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