sport news Euro 2022: Quality of women's football better than ever and our triumphant ... trends now

The Women's Euros have not only been the most watched, but have also showcased the best football the competition has ever produced and the new European champions, England, are one of the teams to deliver the biggest improvement.

The Lionesses won the cup for the first time, in extra time against the old enemy, Germany, on Sunday to round off a fabulous tournament, which will be remembered as a breakthrough competition for the female game.

Women's football may have come home, but it also getting a lot better.

There has been a shift to a more possession-based style. Collectively, the teams have attempted thousands more passes and turned that possession into greater excitement, with more attacks, crosses and goals than at Euro 2017.

England are a prime example. Five years ago, the Lionesses crashed out of the Euros in the semi-finals following a 3-0 defeat to the hosts, Holland.

In that tournament, the team had a passing accuracy of just 69 per cent, but that has rocketed this time, under the cool stewardship of coach Sarina Wiegman to 84 per cent, with a marked improvement in final third of the pitch where there is less space to make a pass. The Lionesses attempted twice as many passes at this tournament, compared to the previous one.

And it's not just England, pass completion across the whole tournament was up from 74 per cent to 78 per cent, according to UEFA.

No wonder more and more people were watching; they were loving what they saw.

This time around, the tournament saw 162 more attacks than in 2017 and over 100 more attempts at goal. As a result, there were more than three goals per game, up from just over two, five years ago.

Viewers saw a goal every 29 minutes on average. In fact, the women's Euros produced more goals per game than the men's competition last year.

There were also thrills and spills worthy of any major football tournament, from Alessia Russo's outrageous back-heel finish for England against Sweden in the semi-final, to Georgia Stanway's piledriver to knock out Spain in extra-time in the previous round.