That’s roar emotion! Fans flock to hail the Lionesses
THEY may have been feeling a little rough, but nothing could stop their unbridled joy or tame their roar.
After partying until 4am, the Lionesses enjoyed a rapturous welcome from thousands of fans in Trafalgar Square yesterday.
The England players’ celebrations had started with beers and singing in the dressing room after their historic 2-1 win over Germany in the Euro women’s final at Wembley on Sunday.
Then they gatecrashed their coach Sarina Wiegman’s postmatch press conference with a performance of It’s Coming Home, during which goalkeeper Mary Earps danced on the desk.
After arriving back at their hotel at 11pm, the good-natured revels carried on ... and on and on...
Little wonder then, perhaps, that many of the team opted to wear dark glasses as, with their winners’ medals round their necks and draped in union jacks, they took to the stage at the victory event in London yesterday.
But they are a game lot, these
Lionesses, and so the party continued in Trafalgar Square, with the team’s infectious sense of fun encapsulated by Chloe Kelly, 24, who is surely now the owner of the world’s most famous sports bra after her shirtless celebration of her winning goal in extra time.
Her wild dancing on the stage during a singalong of Sweet Caroline was a highlight yesterday.
‘ The shirt’s staying on,’ she smiled as the event host Alex Scott interviewed her on the stage.
‘I ain’t stopped dancing, my feet just keep going. Everyone’s absolutely buzzing. We had a good night last night but some of us were a bit worse for wear this morning.’
Fellow goalscorer Ella Toone, 22, said her lob over the German goalkeeper had felt like it took ‘about ten minutes to go in the back of the net’ – and she didn’t know how she managed to stay so composed when doing it in front of the 87,192 spectators, a record for any Euros final, men or women’s.
When told by Miss Scott that England men’s captain Harry Kane was in awe of her, the crowd laughed as she cheekily replied: ‘Yeah – I taught him that.’
The team’s captain Leah Williamson – who, as ticker tape
‘The shirt’s staying on’
fell, lifted the trophy for the 7,000 fans in Trafalgar Square – said: ‘I think we’ve partied more than we’ve actually played football in the past 24 hours.’
Of her emotions when the game ended, she said: ‘Relief. We were all pretty tired. This team likes to work hard but we definitely like to party harder so that’s all I was thinking about when the final whistle went. The party’s not going to stop.’
Miss Williamson, 25, said the
legacy of the tournament was ‘what we’ve done for women and young girls that can look up and aspire to be like us’.
‘I think England have hosted an incredible tournament and we’ve changed the game in this country and hopefully across Europe and across the world,’ she added.
‘But we said we wanted to make our legacy about winning – and that’s what we did.’
The Lionesses’ final attracted a
peak television audience of 17.4million, a record for a women’s football match in the UK, according to overnight ratings released by the BBC.
It was also the most watched programme of the year so far.
Among those in Trafalgar Square yesterday were college student Faye Butler, 17, from Stafford, and her mother Sally, 43, who were also at the final on Sunday.
Faye said: ‘ Men’s football has
always been bigger, but this shows there should be no difference. It’s so cool to see boys walking around with football shirts with the female players’ names on.’
Former Paralympian swimmer Harriet Lee, 31, from Cambridge, who was there with her sons Hudson, four, and Kit, one, said: ‘Hudson has loved watching the girls play. I think it’s really good for women but also for young boys to see women play on their level.’
The impact of the competition was noted by Callum Edwards and Lewis Bellchambers, both 19, who coach girls football at Highgate Rangers and are students at UCFB, the University Campus of Football Business, in Wembley. They teach the under-11s and the under-13s teams.
They reported that the number of girls they coach has doubled during the Euros as more are inspired to play.