Sarina Wiegman’s joyous England Lionesses have me glowing with neighbourly pride

If England are crowned European champions at Wembley on Sunday, they will have a huge slice of luck in the group stage to thank.

Troll me if you must, cancel me if you can, but somebody had to find the strength to speak up.

Firstly, there was Fran Kirby’s fluky 19-yard curler into the top corner, and don’t even get me started on Alessia Russo’s double off the bench. Talk about jammy!

They still would have qualified from Group A but England’s fortuitous five goals against the mighty Northern Ireland was the catalyst for their march to the final. I’m clearly talking rubbish but this marks the only time in the tournament when I was rooting for England to lose. Naturally, of course.

Outside of that, I have looked forward to watching the Lionesses ply their trade with heart, endeavour and skill, all built on a foundation of humility and fuelled by a swagger that never spills over into inaccurate ‘back where we belong’ bravado.

It’s great to be looking forward to a big international football match, at a sold-out Wembley involving England, without being pre-occupied by the threat of violence, intimidation, ‘snowfall’ everywhere and people putting fireworks up their backside.

Well, let’s not rule out the latter. If Russo comes off the bench to score the winner in the final against Germany, sealing the Golden Boot in the process, there is just no telling what her full-time celebration could be like!

In my opinion, they are rightful favourites to win their first ever major tournament.

Top group-stage goal scorers while conceding not a single goal, biggest win of the tournament with that 8-0 versus Norway and the most emphatic semi-final victory in Euros history when they schooled Sweden 4-0 on Tuesday night.

Timing is everything, and