Ellie Watkins and Tolami Benson, partners of England soccer players, have been talking about their highlights from the World Cup as the team returns home after achieving their best performance in the tournament since winning in 1966.
Spain won the championship on Sunday, defeating Argentina 1-0 in a well-played final.
England didn’t manage to win the championship – something they haven’t done since 1966 – after a close 2-1 loss to Argentina in the semi-finals on Wednesday. However, they finished strong with an exciting 6-4 victory over France in the third-place match, regaining some pride.
Oh my gosh, their win in Florida? It’s HUGE! It means they’ve had the best showing in the World Cup in SIXTY YEARS! Sixty years! I was practically screaming, it’s like a dream come true after waiting all this time for them to shine like this again.
Ever since the World Cup finished, the wives and girlfriends of the players – often called WAGs – have been sharing sweet photos on social media showing their time cheering their partners on during the tournament.
Ellie Watkins, the wife of footballer Ollie Watkins, posted adorable photos and videos from the games, featuring loving pictures of herself with her husband in the stands.
‘Proud of you always no matter what. Thank you for the memories,’ she penned alongside the post.
Meanwhile, Bukayo Saka’s fiancée Tolami shared snaps of her stylish outfit for the game.
‘England, always,’ she captioned the dump.
Olivia Stones shared some sweet pictures of her and husband John, expressing how proud she is of him with a message saying, ‘No matter what happens, I’m so proud of you!’
Following their tough loss to Argentina in the semi-finals, England aimed to finish the tournament strong, and they achieved that by winning the bronze medal in an exciting 6-4 match.
After Argentina defeated England in the World Cup, the wives and girlfriends of the English players were seen offering support to their disappointed partners in the stands.
Okay, so everyone always questions the third-place game, but England really came to play! They had an incredible first half, scoring a whopping four goals. It totally set the tone and showed they weren’t taking it lightly.
Declan Rice scored a beautiful, long-range goal after only three minutes, and Ezri Konsa followed up with another goal fifteen minutes later.
Bukayo had a goal disallowed for offsides, but he quickly scored one in the 37th minute. He then added another goal right before halftime, just one minute into added time, completing a brace.
Many of the wives and girlfriends of England’s players reacted to the team’s defeat in the World Cup semi-final.
Megan Pickford, wife of England’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, has been traveling across the U.S. with her kids to cheer on her husband and the rest of the team.
Megan felt like her hopes had been dashed as she carefully put away her children’s clothes, along with her own shirt bearing the name ‘Pickford’. It signaled a finality to something she’d been dreaming of.
Her children – seven-year-old Arlo, three-year-old Ostara Haze, and fifteen-month-old Misty Celine – all wore red shirts that said ‘daddy’ on the back.
After losing in the semi-finals, England and their coach, Thomas Tuchel, faced criticism for not holding onto their lead, which they briefly had in the 55th minute.
England’s run in the tournament is over, and they’ll have to watch the final after their match against France – a game Thomas Tuchel previously described as one no team would want.
The German coach explained that neither his team nor the French team were eager to play this game, as both sides wanted to compete in the final. He emphasized they had given their all to reach that point.
Of course, every team wants to win the World Cup – that’s just the nature of the competition. We have a shorter recovery period before our next match compared to France, but we’ll handle it with focus and dedication.
Following the defeat against Argentina, Tuchel strongly criticized his team, suggesting the issues weren’t specific to his players but reflected a wider problem within the national setup.
‘In this moment my feeling was no structure in the world could have helped us,’ Tuchel said.
We weren’t aggressive enough and lacked physicality, which allowed opponents to easily enter our defensive area. We also struggled with receiving accurate passes or deliveries.
I haven’t looked at the data closely, but it seems like immediately after a goal is scored, the flow of the game changes and whichever team had the ball loses possession quickly.
We stopped finding opportunities for direct conflict, so we were forced to go further and further in. That wasn’t our original intention, but it’s what ended up happening.
2026-07-20 14:19