The Lionesses have changed perceptions of women’s football, says Jermaine Jenas

Former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas, now a TV presenter, says men have bought into the Lionesses who have changed perceptions and captured the heart of the nation.

I do The One Show and it’s not very often we talk about football but the last few nights I’ve had a nice relaxing time talking about just that! That shows the growth and reach of the game and the connection the Lionesses have with the fans. Key to that is the way they play football – people don’t want to watch a boring team and this group play with a fearless nature and wear their hearts on their sleeves.

All I know is the interactions I have with my friends, who are messaging me and in the group chats I’m in, saying England are absolutely on fire here and the comments tell me men are engaging. Maybe they always have engaged with the women’s game. I don’t know the ratio of men to women at the England matches but I do know as a whole everyone is getting behind this engaging group of footballers. They have the country behind them.

Ha ha, loads of times! All goals are about moments and you do that in the first game of the season, no one’s going to flinch. But this was arguably the Lionesses’ biggest game on home turf, with all eyes on them in front of a massive TV audience on BBC One. So to do that creates history and a wave of youngsters, boys and girls, trying to recreate it.

It’s great to think that children up and down the country will be ‘doing a Russo’… Kids will be having great fun recreating that goal, just like the famous Wayne Rooney bicycle kick or the Michael Owen goal against Argentina in 1998. I can imagine kids now pretending to be Alessia Russo (above) and that’s what it’s all about.

The timing of the things that went England’s way – they were a