England’s Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones celebrated their goals against Wales by snapping their fingers in a show of appreciation towards those players who were left on the substitutes bench.
Mead and Beever-Jones came off the bench in the second half to score England’s fifth and sixth of the night against Wales and both celebrated by running towards the sidelines and clicking their fingers.
Afterwards Mead revealed that those left out of Sarina Wiegman’s starting line-up were “snapping” in an attempt to motivate each other before promising to celebrate that way if they came off the bench to score.
“I think we underestimate how hard it can be for the bench sometimes and for the players that don’t get on the pitch as much,” Mead said.
“Before the game started, we were all snapping as a little bit of our motivation, a little bit of energy amongst each other.
“Then we actually said if anyone came on and scored we’d celebrate with each other and show appreciation.So I did that.”
Sarina Wiegman has 23 players in her squad at Euro 2025 and some have yet to play a minute at the tournament – but the England head coach insists that everyone has an important role to play to maintain a competitive team environment.
Ella Toone, who started in Wiegman’s team for the 6-1 win, said afterwards that she was unaware of the “snapping” celebration and laughed that it was an inside joke among those who had started on the bench.
“Oh yeah, I didn’t really know what was going on,” Toone said. “I think it was a little inside thing, but I was in on it at the end.”
“It is really good to see that we created so many chances,” Wiegman said. “You can see the connections. It is nice to see more players who can score goals and that they keep doing things together. This is an intense tournament.”
