At midnight on 2 July more than two million people are expected to watch England play a football World Cup semi-final. Nothing unusual in that, except it will be women they are cheering on. A month ago only the committed knew the women were playing in a World Cup and fewer had heard of Fran Kirby, Jodie Taylor and Lucy Bronze. Now they are the talk of social media and on the front pages of newspapers that three weeks ago seemed unaware women even played football. The team, managed by Welshman Mark Sampson, are England’s first of either sex to reach a World Cup semi-final since 1990, when Paul Gascoigne’s tears captivated a nation and helped lift English men’s football out of the depression...
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