England 2-1 Germany (AET): Lionesses emerge as ruthless champions with Euro 2022 success - The Warm-Up

MONDAY'S BIG STORIES The Art Of Winning Ad/> Throughout her eleven months in charge of England, Sarina Wiegman has returned time and again to one word in her press conferences and her post-match interviews: ruthlessness. Generally, in football, this means taking scoring chances when they come along, and England lived up to that yesterday, with Ella Toone's spectacular running chip and Chloe Kelly's less spectacular, but really quite clever, rolling of the defender in the six-yard box. Euro 2022Wright calls on Premier League to invest in WSL and capitalise on England's Euro 2022 success2 HOURS AGO But there's another kind of ruthlessness that marks out the teams that win from the teams that nearly win.

It's the ability to take a game that's almost there and flatten it out. Sit on it. Squeeze it into a non-contest.

To take the moments that should be the most nervous and drain all the venom from them. You can call it game management if you want to sound clinical; you can call it faffing around near the corner flag if you want to be dismissive. It's not one of football's higher arts, but when it comes to winning trophies it is one of the most important.

And look at this. Poetry, in pitch map form. /> During Euro 2022, some commentators have occasionally stated how refreshing they've found it: here is football apparently without any of the cynicism.

No diving! No timewasting! Though doubtless well-meant, it's a double-edged compliment, for behind the praise lurks the implication that this is all somehow less serious. There is a word for football where nobody cheats as a matter of principle, and that word is «amateur». Either way, we're going to have to retire it now.