Three games, 14 goals scored and none conceded. It is the more than positive balance that summarizes the first round of the English team in this Women’s Euro Cup. However, enthusiasm with the public is mixed. If he lionesses they fill the stadiums, in the country’s pubs, we watch their performances with a distracted gaze, between a general knowledge quiz and a karaoke animation.

At the moment, the tournament does not seem to allow the English women’s team to gain new fans, beyond their usual fan base. The Telegraph picks up this constant in its columns, this Saturday, the day after the third game of the group stage of the English, won 5-0 to Northern Ireland. “The exploits of lionesses they occupy the headlines on television and radio, as well as the headlines of national and regional newspapers, but the audiences of the matches are not very different from those observed during the 2019 World Cup in France”, points out the general newspaper.

“If they don’t win, it will be a failure”

It must be said that the media have put great resources into the competition. While in France, only a fraction of the matches are broadcast unencrypted on TF1 (the rest are broadcast only on Canal+), in the UK, the BBC, the country’s main public channel, broadcasts the entire competition.

The Telegraph so consider this saturday that only exceptional performances can allow women’s football to change its dimension in the country: “To really leave a mark on the mind of the nation, the lionesses not only do they have to be in the final at Wembley on July 31, but they have to be crowned European champions in front of huge crowds in the home of English football, and with the largest television audience this country has ever given to a game feminine. Thus the most skeptical will be defeated. »

by his side, The Guardian Northern Ireland manager quote, Kenny Shiels for whom “England is way above everyone else in this tournament.” “If they don’t win the tournament, it will be a failure of the best players. When you have the best, you have to win, simple as that”, insists the coach.

Between Ellen White, Lucy Bronze, Fran Kirby, Beth Mead or even Alessia Russo, it has to be said that this selection really seems to be one of the best armed in the tournament. To the point of definitively entering the history of English sport?