SYDNEY -- England manager Sarina Wiegman said it feels like a "fairytale" to be back in another final after her team secured a 3-1 win over Australia in the Women's World Cup semifinal on Wednesday.
Wiegman steered England to the Euros final last summer, which the Lionesses won. Before that, she led the Netherlands to the 2019 World Cup final, which they lost to the USWNT, and the 2017 Euros final, which the Dutch won.
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"The chance that as a coach or as player you make it to two finals is really, really special," Wiegman said in a flash interview after the game at Stadium Australia when asked about reaching back-to-back World Cup finals for two countries.
"We made it to four already. I never take anything for granted but it's like, am I in the middle of a fairytale or something?"
Goals from Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo were too much for the Matildas, where Sam Kerr's lone goal only briefly gave home fans a glimmer of hope before England ran away with the match.
"It's so hard to reach a final even though you might be the favourite," Wiegman said. "We've seen in this tournament too that there were many favourite teams who are really good who are not in the knockout round or in the group stage already finished their tournament.
"Every step has been really, really hard. I know it's very, very special, and that's how it feels too."
Wiegman has lost only one game since taking over as England's manager in September 2021 and it was a friendly against Australia in April.
The flip side of Wiegman living her fairytale is that she ended Australia's fairytale, as a reporter noted to her in a news conference after the game, for which Wiegman apologised.
Asked if she had taken in the magnitude of what she's achieved over the past few years, Wiegman said she was still processing it
"I don't know -- I really appreciate it," she said. "When we make the first final, that was in 2017, we think, this is really special and it might not ever happen again. And then you make the second final and then the third and then the fourth.
"You think all the time this might never happen again because the competition is so hard and there's so many teams that can make the final, so it is very special -- I do know that. But then tomorrow, I'm just going to prepare for Spain because I want to win the final."