Euro 2022: Faith, squad strength & preparation – what England have learned from past semi-final defeats

England have been here many times – but can they take the next step to reach a final in a women’s major for the first time since 2009?

The Lionesses will compete in a fourth consecutive semi-final on Tuesday when they take on Olympic finalists Sweden (20:00 BST).

Former England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley was involved in previous defeats in 2015, 2017 and 2019 and she reflects on what happened and what Sarina Wiegman’s side can learn from it.

Japan 2-1 England – World Cup 2015

Karen Bardsley was among those who comforted Laura Bassett after her own goal against Japan

England reached their first World Cup semi-final in 2015 but an injury-time own goal from defender Laura Bassett, deflecting a cross over Bardsley’s head, meant holders Japan won 2-1. England had previously KO’d Norway and hosts Canada.

Bardsley: After the last win in the group stage against Colombia, we really started to believe in ourselves. We had never won a knockout game before so everything felt different but I was super confident.

The biggest shift in momentum came against Norway. They were riding a wave back then.

But after that we were just like, ‘What’s next? Let’s go and beat Canada.

I was nervous because Canada forward Christine Sinclair always had my number – she was like the bogeyman forward. When the score was 2-0 I lost one and she scored and I will always remember the sound of her audience. It felt like the sound was in my chest, I had never felt anything like it.

But we persevered and at full-time there was a great sense of relief and excitement. That’s when we felt like the whole nation back home was starting to sit up and take notice. Some of the players took to social media and saw kids trying to get sick leave to stay up late to watch the semifinals and miss school.

We had faith that we would find a way against Japan. Obviously it was the last few seconds of that game… and it was just awful.

Laura Bassett put her foot out for a cross and unfortunately it chipped me. I remember turning and sprinting to try and get the ball. I dove and just watched it cross the line. It was the cruelest way to go out.

Laura had been so good throughout the tournament that no one wanted to be expected of anyone. We tried to protect them as best we could.

We knew we had the third-fourth place game against Germany, so we had a meeting the next morning and had to make sure we were in the right place mentally. I went to the mall with some of the girls and there was a roller coaster and a water park and we just tried to forget it.

We didn’t want any regrets against Germany. We wanted to do it for Bassett and we made it and won 1-0. You only learn from those challenging moments.

Netherlands 3-0 England – Euro 2017

England boss Sarina Wiegman was in charge of the Netherlands as they beat the Lionesses in 2017

In 2017, England were blown away by hosts Netherlands, losing 3-0 in the semi-finals. Bardsley broke his leg in the quarterfinals and had to sit out. Manager Sarina Wiegman, now in charge of the Lionesses, led the Netherlands to the 2017 title.

Bardsley: Preparing for this semi-final was weird for me. I was devastated but really wanted to be positive for the team. The prep felt similar to 2015, but I remember as soon as the game started I was like, ‘oh oh, something’s wrong here’.

Maybe it was our line-up and maybe we made the wrong decisions tactically, but it just felt like we were immediately behind.

We thought we could beat the Dutch even though they did that crazy ’12. man” vibe. We had that experience against Canada in 2015 so it wasn’t too much of a shock but the difference was that they built this incredible belief about the tournament. They had that camaraderie and togetherness that we now see with England.

What we also saw was that Wiegman had backup plans. It was one of those moments where we realized that maybe we weren’t as well prepared as we thought.

There were a lot of individual mistakes that day and ultimately it came down to squad depth and tournament experience. I remember the devastation because we really thought we were going to win that tournament.

2015 felt magical and hope got us through the tournament, while faith got us to the semifinals in 2017 and then the shock of just not getting it right.

England – USA 1-2 – World Cup 2019

England lost 2-1 to USA in the round of 16 of the 2019 World Cup as a record 11.7 million viewers watched on ` One. Captain Steph Houghton had saved a penalty in the 84th minute while joint top scorer Ellen White ruled out a VAR goal for offside. Bardsley picked up an injury in the quarterfinals and had to fail again.

Bardsley: The 2019 tournament at home certainly had a different feel. You could feel the gap between Europe and the United States closing.

After the SheBelieves Cup was introduced, we became more and more accustomed to playing these bigger teams. We noticed [the USA players] weren’t the “superheroes” we thought they were. We could get her off that pedestal.

It was the first time I felt really confident from the start of the tournament, I felt so well prepared. We got through the last 16 clash against Cameroon and I remember everyone celebrating and defying manager Phil Neville’s hairdo.

In the second half against Norway in the quarter-finals, I felt my Achilles tendon pop and I knew that was it for me. I remember the day before the semifinals, when I had to pretend to the media that I was ok, so there was still speculation if I would play. I couldn’t kick a ball but the team preparation was great.

Actually, I was prepared to be substituted on for penalties. I dived on a crash mat in training to make sure I could do it. I was available to come for what’s crazy. When Steph Houghton took her penalty I was preparing to come on. Unfortunately she didn’t score and we knew our chance was gone.

All those little moments are really important. In 2015 we knew we had to work on our faith and mentality. The loss of 2017 taught us something about squad strength and after 2019 we knew it was those defining moments and the level of preparation that was required.

I think that’s the biggest lesson we’ve learned and that we have to draw on in this semi-final against Sweden.