England women reached a World Cup final and lost – but they have the winning mentality to reach another, according to former star Sue Smith
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Former England women's player Sue Smith believes the Lionesses will consistently get to the business end of more tournaments, following the World Cup.
Sarina Wiegman's side were beaten 1-0 to eventual world champions Spain in Sydney, Australia, confounding many critics who perhaps doubted their capabilities following the number of injuries they had to contend with.
Smith has just been a part of a campaign from KIND Snacks to create a giant 'Welcome home' banner for the squad, which can be seen from the sky – and now, she's told FourFourTwo that hope is still high for the future and that she expects this team to be competing for major honours in the future – despite their disappointment to lose the World Cup final.
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"We’ve got brilliant young players who are hopefully going to grow together," Smith said. "Hopefully, we can keep the manager – but thanks to her, we can consistently do this now: get to the latter stages of competitions, get to finals, win finals.
"There’s no reason why they can’t. They’ve got that belief now, that winning mentality. I think against Australia, the experience showed through and they just looked controlled. A massive crowd against us and England didn’t care. They quietened everyone and unfortunately, they just came up against a really good Spain side.
(Image credit: KIND Snacks)
"They’ll learn from that: I think it’s a really bright future for this side. It’s a massive learning curve. It’s horrible at the time but you learn from it. They’ll get there. I think if you’d have said before the tournament, where will England finish… I’m super positive but with all the injuries and the retirements, I wasn’t sure what we’d do. It was a tricky group but after that, it depends on who you play. But as we were going, overcoming these challenges, Germany were going out, the US were going out and I thought, ‘We’re going to win this!’
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"I think we all knew that Spain were a top-quality side but we have those players who can provide top-quality moments and I thought we could do a back-to-back Euros and World Cup, which would have been incredible. I think it’s a brilliant achievement, though."
(Image credit: KIND Snacks)
KIND Snacks have created a GIANT 'welcome home' message for the Lionesses, visible from the sky as the Lionesses return from their record-breaking performance in Australia. The message, which reads ‘LIONESSES, YOU DID US PROUD’, is visible from a plane at 20,000ft high, and made out of thousands of messages of support from the public, including ex-Lioness Sue Smith.
Mark White has been at on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, first as a staff writer before becoming content editor in 2023. An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also represented FFT at both FA Cup and League Cup finals (though didn't receive a winners' medal on either occasion) and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. He has written cover features for the mag on Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard, and is assisted by his cat, Rosie, who has interned for the brand since lockdown.
