Whole new ball game for proud Lionesses

MARK SAMPSON’S Lionesses suffered Euro 2017 heartbreak but they have lifted English women’s football into “a different stratosphere” says the head coach.

Defeat by the host nation in the semi-finals of the tournament in Holland meant England went out at the same stage as they did at the 2015 World Cup in Canada.

But as the Lionesses prepare to kick off their 2019 World Cup qualifying campaign next month, Sampson

(right) insists that real progress has been made in recent years.

“Women’s football has had another big shift forward over the course of this tournament,” he said.

“Everything about this team is completely different to what it was at the Euro finalsfour years ago and, hopefully, everything about the women’s game is too.

“We are moving in the right direction and it’s important now that we continue to do that in every area, from the grass roots right through all the way to the England team.”

Over a thousand England fans were at Thursday’s semi-final in Enschede, while four million watched events unfold on television

– a record here for a women’s match. “The players take great pride those record statistics,” added Sampson. “They have moved this England team into a different stratosphere.”

The Lionesses head into World Cup qualifying with a game against Russia at Tranmere’s Prenton Park on 19 September.