Lionesses star Beth Mead has hit back at suggestions on social media that Gareth Southgate is the first England manager to reach two major international finals.
England reached the Euro 2024 final on Wednesday evening following their 2-1 win over the Netherlands, with Ollie Watkins scoring a last-gasp winner for Southgate’s side in the 90th minute.
The Three Lions will now face Spain on Sunday at 8pm and have reached consecutive finals of the European Championship for the first time in history.
After England’s win on Wednesday evening, social media was awash with posts paying tribute to Southgate, many of which highlighted the 53-year-old’s achievement of reaching two major finals with the national side.
But while Southgate is the first to reach two finals with England in the men’s game, Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman achieved this before as she guided the women’s team to victory at Euro 2022 before her side beat Brazil on penalties to win the Women’s Finalissima the following year.
Mead, who finished as the joint-top scorer at Euro 2022 and was one of the Lionesses’ standout performers during the tournament, was clearly unhappy with Wiegman being overlooked in the posts about Southgate after England’s win on Wednesday night.
In her response to one post on X which claimed that Southgate ‘is the first England manager to reach two major international finals’, Mead replied: ‘Hmm, beg to differ’.
The tribute post from the social media account was subsequently deleted.
When asked about England’s win against the Dutch, Weigman, who was born and raised in the Netherlands, said at her press conference on Thursday: ‘Congratulations on the win.
‘To be really honest, of course I wish the very best for Gareth and the team but it did hurt. My orange heart hurt!’
Lionesses forward Lauren Hemp said: ‘It was a great result for England and all of us girls were so excited and buzzing. Everyone was watching it together and we were all really excited.
‘Obviously, England left it to the last few minutes, like they usually do, but that made it more exciting.
‘They have their game at the weekend and we have two very important games coming up so it would be nice for us to share that success together with us getting a couple of wins as well.’
The Lionesses are currently making their final preparations ahead of their Euro 2025 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland.
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