Bright spark dazzles as boss doesn’t flinch

When the dust has settled on this extraordinary night, there will be talk of Sarina Wiegman’s unflinching action in the face of what were beginning to look like insuperable odds.

The two Manchester United strikers she introduced, ella Toone and Alessia Russo, combined to manufacture an equaliser and almost take the roof off this place.

That paved the way for Georgia Stanway’s winner which really did do the trick.

There will be questions to ask in the days ahead, despite the win. Whether Russo, england’s most lethal striker, should be starting for england — rather than ellen White, for one. Yes.

Whether it is sustainable to play a right-footed midfielder, Rachel Daly, in a left back role against the continent’s best. no.

But the broader story of the night is of how a defender who has journeyed through all the twists and turns of the england team’s genesis under Mark Sampson and Phil neville delivered such a commanding performance. Millie Bright was fundamental to england.

The great managers talk about the interminable hour or so before the game’s start, with all plans imparted and nothing left to convey.

Wiegman (below) certainly seemed to share that sentiment, standing implacably on the touchline for 15 minutes — in her now familiar dark suit and white trainers — as her players went through the warm-up against the din of the stadium announcer’s keepie uppie camera.

Perhaps it was because Bright was in the eye-line that Wiegman’s gaze seemed to rest on her as she pinged 15-yard passes to Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze.

If there was a concern then it was that the england team that walked out into the sunshine had not known what adversity had looked like in this tournament.

how it was to concede, to struggle. What the hush of a stunned crowd felt like. This tournament had been only a procession up to this point.

What happened next was nothing like that. From the moment Walsh pointed, after the event, to the five yards of attacking space Bronze had left wide open for Olga Carmona to attack the box in the game’s opening moments, it was clear that this division of labour was not going to be easy.

Stanway urged

Beth Mead to get out of her sphere of defence when she dropped back to join the rearguard effort.

Bright was the sentinel however, in the midst of this sound and fury.

A conversation with her at St George’s Park before the tournament made you wonder why she is not captaining this side and she certainly was in spirit, as england tried to ride the early storms.

This is a tournament which has seen a lot of sub-par defensive performances so far and you feel that the team that defends best will have a very good chance of winning.

Bright has clearly been liberated by Wiegman and also looked physically fitter and more nimble than she had when USA made england’s defence look very normal in the World Cup semi-final in 2019.

There were two foot races with esther Gonzalez in the first half and Bright won both. When Gonzalez then tried to play her way around the england defence with Mariona Caldentey, Bright barged through to put an end to the process.

Bright was also putting together the balls designed to exploit Spain’s high defensive line, lofting 20-yard passes for the midfield to leap and flick on ellen White.

But above all it was what you might call the unfashionable, oldschool kind of defending that Bright brought — a physical presence at the heart of defence which saw her leap and deal with the aerial ball.

She left the field crimson-faced from sheer physical effort at halftime, at which stage no england player had done more than her.

The unanswered question about this side was the balance of their defence, though. how a back line made up entirely of right-footed players would contend with a side of such quality.

And the nature of Spain’s goal answered that. Rachel Daly lunged in and the worst happened.

Wiegman’s coolness was remarkable, though the substitutes rather stole the show.

It turned out that Bright had been part of the emergency strategy all along.

It was she who was posted to the Spanish penalty box, where her aerial distraction allowed Toone to break in and score.