Sloppy play, strapping, a bloody nose, notes, cramp, needing a wee mid-penalty, hitting the woodwork, chest-bumps, roars, supersubs, shocking spot kicks, a never-say-die attitude and a shedload of luck.
England, the defending champions, beat Sweden 3-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw to progress to the Euro 2025 semi-finals.
Such a simple sentence. There is structure, order, whole numbers — a complete contrast to the kaleidoscopic whirl of chaos that unfolded inside Zurich’s Stadion Letzigrund on Thursday night. Or had the minutes ticked into Friday morning in Switzerland by the end? Any concept of time had disappeared.
“Very hyper,” said the usually serene England head coach Sarina Wiegman post-match, adrenaline coursing through her body. “Still very emotional… a crazy game… I can’t remember anything like this. At least three times, I thought we were out.”
Once inside the tie’s opening two minutes when Sweden captain Kosovare Asllani punished England’s poor passing, twice when Stina Blackstenius hammered home in the 25th minute to double the lead. Nearly a third had it not been for Hannah Hampton denying Fridolina Rolfo later on in the first half.
Not that the England No 1 recalls the save, every action a blur.
At half-time, 2-0 down, there was calm inside the England dressing room. The coaching staff made tactical tweaks and reinforced key messages: play to your strengths, get the forward players on the ball, exploit the back post from crosses and believe. The players said, “We don’t want to go home” to each other.
A quartet of substitutes eventually came on, three in the 70th minute: Beth Mead for Ella Toone, Michelle Agyemang for Georgia Stanway and Esme Morgan for Jess Carter, then Chloe Kelly replacing Lauren Hemp eight minutes later.
Morgan, who showed maturity on her tournament debut, brought with her a note with instructions from the coaches. She didn’t read it, she was just told to give it to Lucy Bronze and captain Leah Williamson, who took a look then tucked it into one of her socks.
Morgan passes the note to Williamson (Maryam Majd/Getty Images)
Wiegman rolled the dice and England changed their shape, it seemed with two strikers (Russo and Agyemang), two wingers (Mead and Kelly) and James, who like many battled and ran all night, in a floating midfield role.
“I was playing as a No 6, No 10, as a winger…” said Mead. “Weirdly, it didn’t feel chaotic. If Sarina asks you to do it, you do it, and as a player, you back yourself. Sarina knows what she’s doing. There is method in the madness.”
The closest player to Wiegman’s position on the touchline passes on any new information to her team-mates at any break in play.
“You get a few seconds, a minute or two, she changes it quickly…” said Mead.
Morgan’s note said to stay patient, build attacks, let the forwards create and stop Blackstenius and Sweden’s counter-attacks.
The message to Kelly — in shin pads with pictures of her wedding day last summer and her dogs on them — was to inject energy into the game. A minute later, the supersub duly delivered with a sumptuous cross for Bronze to head home. She did the same 102 seconds later. This time, 19-year-old Agyemang tapped in to level the score at 2-2, chest-bumping Bronze in celebration.
Kelly was constantly in Agyemang’s ear. “Come alive now, Miche,” her Arsenal team-mate whispered.
To extra time we went.
In the 100th minute, Williamson rolled her ankle after jumping for a header. Kelly ushered the physios onto the pitch. She told her captain to wait a little longer, so a substitute could warm up. The centre-back was not moving fluidly. Neither was Keira Walsh who, struggling with cramp, could not make it the five further minutes to half-time of extra time.
Wiegman spoke to the players in a huddle. Williamson was animated and gave a rousing speech.
“Just keep going — 15 minutes, give it absolutely everything, leave everything out there,” she said, knowing she could not continue. “She was trying to keep us motivated,” explained Mead, who felt Williamson’s “raw emotion”.
Minutes later, however, England looked like the walking wounded after defending a Sweden corner. Blood trickled from Hampton’s right nostril while Alex Greenwood clutched her shoulder. As England doctor Ritan Mehta shoved wadding up Hampton’s nose, Bronze took matters into her own hands. Her right thigh was feeling tight, so she strapped it up before chucking the excess white tape off the pitch.
Hampton with her bloodied nose (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
“I thought, ‘I just need to get through to make sure I can keep going’,” she said.
Hardly ideal preparation for a penalty shootout.
England came together in a tight huddle before the penalties started. Assistant Arjan Veurink clearly told the players their order. They knew their system but the execution was poor. Despite the fact she was bursting for a wee by then, with a hop, a skip and a cheeky grin, Kelly kept their hopes alive.
Morgan was, in her words, “weirdly calm”, but Toone felt sick watching from the bench.
“It was horrible, honestly. Awful,” she said. ‘I’ve never felt like it in my life. It’s so hard when you’re playing and then you come off and you can’t help the team. You’ve got to find a different way to encourage, give them that extra push. It’s just so hard sitting there and not being able to do anything. I was sat next to Stanway, she didn’t help, then Keira didn’t help, a lot of us were shutting our eyes.”
Agyemang was asking Kelly to keep count of the score. Then up stepped Bronze, the captain’s rainbow armband around her right wrist. She whipped off the strapping on her leg.
“I didn’t expect it to go to the sixth penalty,” said the right-back, whose belief never wavered. “I thought, ‘I need to take this off. I’m going to actually smack it’.”
Bronze hit a 102kmph (63mph) rocket into the roof of the net, let out a roar and slammed the rebounding ball onto the grass. “Lucy was chaotic,” said Mead. “She became a physio, a striker, she nailed the best penalty of the day. She did it all.”
Absolute euphoria! 😮
Lucy Bronze buries her penalty and Smilla Holmberg cannot hit the target – sending England through to the semi-finals! #BBCFootball #WEuro2025 pic.twitter.com/zXqD6IhIMz
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 17, 2025
When Smilla Holmberg fired over the bar, the England players bundled on Hampton, who had made two crucial saves.
“I’m better with one nostril!,” the player of the match joked. Goalkeeping coach Darren Ward hugged and lifted the petite Wiegman off the ground, Williamson jumped into the arms of a tearful coaching staff member. Gala’s Freed From Desire blasted out of the dressing room as the players danced.
Relief, happiness and frustration poured out of Mead, who was one of nine players from both sides to miss a penalty.
“I think I cried like a baby,” she said. “It’s a lot of emotion. You’ve been in these positions before and we’ve fallen short. We worked so hard to get back into the game, to not have got it over the line was a scary thought.”
Williamson was proud of her team. “I love that we never give up,” she told the BBC. “We’re never done.”
“It’s our never-say-die attitude,” said Toone. “A bit of a mad one, a whirlwind, it is hard to put into words, but we got there in the end.”
Next up — Italy on Tuesday for a place in the final.
(Top photo: Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)
