Inside the Lionesses’ bizarre superstition that helped them win Euro 2022 as they now target World Cup 2023 glory
BEHIND every successful team is a great manager, a flawless philosophy and a relentless work ethic.
There is also the odd superstition.
England had all of the above when they stormed to European Championship glory last summer.
Sarina Wiegman united a squad, and that squad gradually united a nation when the Lionesses edged through each round of Euro 2022, first defeating Austria, Norway and Northern Ireland in the group stages before seeing off Spain in the quarter-finals and Sweden in the semi-finals.
They then capped off an unforgettable month with a 2-1 win over bitter rivals Germany in the final, thanks to goals from Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly.
But after lifting that glorious glass trophy under the iconic Wembley arch – and basking in the celebrations – attention quickly turned to the next big challenge – the World Cup.
A year has since passed and the Lionesses are now preparing to do it all over again, this time in Australia and New Zealand.
But while the team looks slightly different – with Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Fran Kirby absent due to injury – Wiegman and her squad are approaching this year’s World Cup with a similar mindset.
They are even prepared to replicate one key superstition that helped them to victory last summer.
England midfielder Georgia Stanway has revealed that it became a tradition for all players to NOT pack their suitcases during the Euros, even when they had to leave their base hotel.
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The 24-year-old told FourFourTwo magazine: “That was something we really enjoyed doing: not packing our suitcases, leaving our stuff exactly where it was.
“It was never really spoken about, but for every matchday minus one, we would travel to a different hotel, and it became tradition to leave everything unpacked at our base hotel.
“It was where all of our clothes were and where everything was unpacked.
“We had made the rooms our own and made it the Lionesses’ hotel, and there was always a bit of: ‘Are we taking our bags?’
“But it became normal to leave them because we knew we were coming back.
“That meant we were coming back for the final.”
AUSSIE BASE
England are based at the Crowne Plaza Terrigal Pacific Hotel for the World Cup, a four-star complex on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
The Lionesses took a 90-minute flight to Brisbane from their base camp on Sunday ahead of their opening match against Haiti on Thursday.
After the match, they will return to their base hotel for their second group game against Denmark.
The England team will then fly another two hours to Adelaide, where they will take on China.
Fully expect their bags at base camp to remain unpacked throughout – and hopefully up until the final on August 20.