Cliff Notes
- England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton expressed relief and joy after her team’s dramatic comeback against Sweden in the Euros quarter-finals, leading to a semi-final appearance.
- Lucy Bronze played a pivotal role, scoring the first goal of the comeback and successfully converting England’s final penalty in a tense shootout.
- Manager Sarina Wiegman praised the resilience of the team, noting strategic substitutions as key to overcoming a 2-0 deficit and securing a 3-2 victory in the shootout.
Lionesses went from sloppy to celebratory in nerve-shredding euros quarter-final | UK News
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By the time Hannah Hampton appeared in the news conference, the England goalkeeper was relieved, ecstatic and wanting to share this night far and wide.
So when her phone started ringing with a FaceTime call, she broke off speaking to the media about reaching the Euros semi-finals to answer it.
And then share the call with the room in Zurich.
After such a nerve-shredding night, this was the moment to relax and just savour it all.
Savour how close they came to throwing it all away against Sweden before staging a stirring comeback inspired by Lucy Bronze.
The 33-year-old scored the goal that began the fightback with 11 minutes to go and converted England’s final penalty in the shootout.
“Lucy Bronze is one of a kind,” England manager Sarina Wiegman said. “It’s that resilience, that fight. I think the only way to get her off the pitch is in a wheelchair.”
The Lionesses looked down and out, 2-0 down after 25 minutes.
Completely outplayed. A defence run ragged. Just too sloppy.
“We said at half-time we don’t want to go home,” Hampton said. “So it’s up to us to turn the game around.”
That only came after Wiegman deployed the substitutes the manager calls “finishers”.
They fulfilled their mission.
“Sweden in that moment had to adapt to some different things in the game,” Wiegman said, “before they could, it was 2-2.”
Within seconds of coming on, match-winner Chloe Kelly showed the missing spirit. The spirit that saw her score the Euro 2022 winner.
A creator of two goals in 103 seconds.
A cross headed in with 11 minutes to go by Bronze – the only player still playing from the Euro 2013 group-stage elimination.
It was a lifeline seized on so quickly.
Another cross from Kelly was this time brought down by Beth Mead before Michelle Agyemang.
The timeliest of goals from the teen – a first tournament goal on her third appearance as a sub.
But there would be the anxiousness of extra time to follow, unable to find a breakthrough.
So to the shootout that lasted 14 penalties between them.
Hampton said: “It was stressful watching and playing, I thought every single time when I saved one, ‘Please score and give us a cushion’. I feel so happy and relieved.”
Around Alessia Russo and Kelly scoring there were four England misses before Bronze converted England’s seventh and Sweden missed a fifth.
A frenzied 3-2 shootout win was complete.
“I can’t remember anything like this,” said Wiegman, who has only reached finals in her four tournaments with the Netherlands and England.
“I thought three times we were out,” she said.
But instead it’s off to Geneva for the European champions for a semi-final with Italy.
They’ll be hoping it’s less of a struggle, less dramatic – while just glad to have made it there.