England women are Euro 2022 champions.

 England women are Euro 2022 champions

Jill Scott, now the veteran matriarch of England's women football, is 35 but you would never have known it. She looked radiant, glowing, full of pride and still capable of talking a good game. Women's football has never known a moment like this and perhaps it will again. This was one in the eye for the men's game since it is now an agonising 56 years ago and a day since Bobby Moore, the Charlton brothers Jack and Bobby, Roger Hunt, Alan Ball, Sir Geoff Hurst, Sir Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles, George Cohen and Ray Wilson dared to dream and then found the dream to be absolutely true. 

At long last the yoke has been lifted, the burden of history lifted quite comfortably and rather than the boys basking in the adulation, the girls are now sitting pretty at the top plinth of European and world football. Let's hear it for the girls. Let's hear it for the sisters. The sisterhood have done something those men have singularly been unable to do and they seemed to do it within a much shorter time frame.

There comes a time when the men of the world must have thought they were invincible, that after all of these years of teenage teeth gnashing, frustrating cul-de-sacs, missed opportunities and nothing but unmitigated misery, something would give. And it did. But not quite in the way we were hoping it would. The men must have cursing in all manner of colourful language. How did the girls achieve something so important within the historical context of the game, that the men have been struggling with for so many decades now?

Now what becomes patently obvious is that perhaps the women should become full time counsellors and psychologists to their men folk if only to tell them that there's nothing complicated about winning major tournaments. Maybe it's all in the mind and simply a case of adopting a positive mentality when it comes to the crunch. The mindset has to be right and as long as you maintain your concentration for 90 minutes and look as though you might snatch the winner in extra time, then it's a piece of cake.

In the end it was all about the collective ethos, team bonding, feminine solidarity, feminine discipline, the ability to shut out all external distractions and just get the job done. England are the new women's Euro 2022 champions and how they deserved it. This was a victory for dedication to the cause, committed hearts, focused minds and sheer bloody mindedness. The girls did get the job done efficiently and profoundly skilfully. They were cleverly cohesive, competing for every ball as if their lives depended on it and just very impressive. 

So if Gareth Southgate and England skipper Harry Kane were watching last night then you might like to know that your country still needs you and desperately wants you to win the World Cup in Qatar a week before Christmas Eve. No pressure there, then. Is there some formula the girls have in their possession that the men simply can't get their heads around? All suggestions on a postcard, please. Perhaps the women would rather pass on any inside knowledge that we may never find out about. 

Still, the fact remains that last year England's men reached the Euro 2020 at Wembley and were passed off the park in the second half. Luke Shaw's early opening goal for England last year is almost ancient history now but then England were almost swallowed up in the second half and devoured with much relish by an Italian side guided by an immensely shrewd manager in Roberto Mancini. Enzo Bearzot he most certainly was not but Italy in their cool, calculated manner, beat England in the penalty shoot out.

Last night though was entirely different and much more like the way it was 56 years ago. It may not have been the day but the day after the 1966 World Cup Final 56 years later that England imitated their male brethren. True, there were no endless laps of honour including men with blond hair and jigging around Wembley Stadium with teeth grinning. Nobody slumped to their knees in sheer exultation when the final whistle went but England did win something very special and that must have been the best feeling in the world. 

When the final whistle went last night the white shirts started skipping around the new Wembley stadium, going through that familiar routine of hand fluttering, grandstanding, sliding through carpets of confetti and just letting themselves go. It wouldn't have got any better than this and the fact is we were just thrilled and overjoyed because as men there was a feeling of helpless fallibility. After all those years of laborious struggling, striving and prosaic ordinariness, the women showed us exactly how you can win a crucial Final without getting flustered, hot and bothered and panicking.

For the first half at least the game itself seemed to be locked in a vice of its own making, both England and Germany, sparring, tentatively flinging out punches to the solar plexus and not really threatening each other as such. In the old days this would have been regarded as the cautious, conservative approach, testing each other's emotional reflexes but never landing the vital knock out blow. But the game slowly unfolded and England eventually found a way of constructing attacking movements, of exerting their home advantage, probing, flowing, moving the ball among themselves effortlessly and thoughtfully.

Then England got the breakthrough they were looking for. Keira Walsh, a substantial and hugely influential presence across the whole of the Wembley pitch, picked out an immaculate through ball. The ball was beautifully floated through the eye of a needle to Ella Toone, who, running judiciously onto the high pass, squared up to German keeper Merle Frohms before chipping the ball over the head of Frohms and into the net for England's opening goal.

From there onwards the secure back line of Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright, Leah Williamson and Rachel Daly bolted up their defensive vault and just denied the Germans any time on the ball, adaptability itself as they looked to charge forward themselves. Then Keira Walsh, the provider of England's goal, Georgia Stanway, Beth Mead, Fran Kirby, Lauren White and Ellie White all pulled together as one glorious team unit, scheming, scrapping, toiling, pinching the ball from the Germans with decisive tackling and then breaking thrillingly, frenetically at times but always coherently. England knew what they were doing and they knew this was going to be their day on the last day of July.

Then the second half arrived and we all know what invariably happens then. England simply lost their bearings, squandered possession wastefully and carelessly and the Germans stylishly hauled their way back into the game. Now the likes of Felicitas Rauch, Lina Magull, the scorer of Germany's equaliser, Lena Oberdorf, Sara Dabritz, Alexandra Popp, Jule Brand all began to impose themselves with creative and quick witted passing through the lines.

The dark green shirts of Germany were ganging up on the white shirts of England, surrounding them in a kind of football stockade. The passes were pretty, fluent and ornate, the rhythms now hypnotic, their attacks works of art and their sense of togetherness always in evidence. With the game still finely poised, the Germans with Teutonic thorougness and sheer perseverance, hit England below the belt as we knew they probably would.

A neat interchange and intelligent piece of approach work on England's touchline produced a huddle of intricate passes. The ball eventually found its way to the byline and a smart cut back across led to Lina Magull superbly flicking the ball past England goalkeeper Mary Earps. It was a textbook goal, a sucker punch when sucker punches weren't really needed. But it was the equaliser the Germans probably thought was highly merited.

Now it was extra time and England began to find yet another gear. Beth Mead and Fran Kirby in particular were wonderfully effective, linking together, carving open the Germans and teasing them out of position with cunning intent. The ball had now become England's closest relative and how they cherished it when they had it. This game was about to change quite favourably for England. The game was wide open and England pounced on every loose ball that came their way. 

Suddenly with minutes to go of extra time to go, England won themselves a corner from the right which was swung over with perfect weight. The white shirts flooded forward in keen anticipation and the ball landed on the right spot at the right time. After a brief clash of bodies in the six yard box the ball seemed to ping off one England shirt. In a split second, Chloe Kelly on standby duty, stabbed the ball towards goal and then prodded the ball delightedly over the line. A second goal for England and that was all they required. 

England women are the European Championship, Euro 2022 champions, winners and trophy holders. Now that was a sentence many of us thought we'd never begin to articulate again in any sporting context. By now the almost 90,000 were just deliriously happy, families and children abandoning themselves to high fives, St George banners decorating Wembley's vast open spaces. 

For the men of course there were conflicting emotions. In a way it didn't really matter which gender had won any kind of trophy and maybe that's all that really mattered. But this was a night for Girl Power, female empowerment, female assertiveness, equality, the most level of all playing grounds. The worlds of cricket and rugby are also embracing women's sport with much feverish fervour. It is a long time since you could say with some truth and conviction that England are European Champions. But goodness knows we've waited long enough and now it's happened. Well done Ladies.