Sarina Wiegman: 'Am I hearing a little fairytale or something?'

The emotion was clear to see, both on her face and in her voice. Sarina Wiegman has now made it four finals in four major tournaments as a head coach and she can’t quite believe it.

‘Sarina, wow’ were the first words to come from Jo Currie’s mouth at the beginning of the BBC interview with Wiegman, having watched the Lionesses become the first England Men’s or Women’s senior team to reach a World Cup final since 1966 following their 3-1 win over hosts Australia.

Since Wiegman became the Netherlands' head coach in January 2017, her record in major tournaments reads: two European Championship wins with both the Dutch women’s team and the Lionesses, a runners-up medal in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and now another final appearance at this year’s World Cup against Spain on Sunday.

Currie made the point to Wiegman: you are the first coach to take two different nations to a World Cup final. How do you keep doing this?

Wiegman replied: "I don’t know. I just said to Arjan [Veurink, England assistant coach] the chance as a coach and as a player to make it to finals is really special and we've made it to four already!

“I never take anything for granted but am I hearing a little fairytale or something?"

"We achieved the final – it's unbelievable,” she said.

“It's an incredible stadium, an away game, and the way we played it, of course it was a hard game, but again we found a way to win.”

England edged 1-0 wins over Haiti and Denmark in the group stages, either side of the 6-1 victory over China, and needed penalties to beat Nigeria in the round of 16 before an improved display saw them overcome Colombia 2-1 in the quarter-finals.

The semi-final with hosts Australia saw the toughest test yet in front of a largely partisan crowd of 75,784.

But goals from Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo ensured England overcome the Matildas at Stadium Australia to book their place in Sunday’s final with Spain.

When asked how the Lionesses managed to edge the game, Wiegman replied: "We scored three goals. At the end, I think it's about ruthlessness. This team is ruthless, whether that's upfront or in defence, we really want to keep the ball out of the net and really want to win. We stick together and stick to the plan, and it worked again!”

Like England during last summer’s EURO, the Matildas have attracted a new fan base to women’s football during the home tournament.

And Wiegman said: "They've done an incredible job, they really grew into the tournament because they've had some setbacks too – where they had to win that last match in the group stage, and they started playing better and better.

“Sam Kerr came back and we saw today why she's the star of the team, but as a team they're really tough to play against. So what a performance.”