England came back from a 2-0 deficit to take Sweden to penalties and seal their place in the Euro 2025 semifinals, but they did it by virtue of one of the strangest, and longest, penalty shootouts ever.
With the teams all square after 120 minutes, Alessia Russo stepped up to take England’s first and buried it into the corner. SCORE. England 1-0 Sweden.
Then England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton flung herself to her left to save the shot from Filippa Angeldahl. MISS. England 1-0 Sweden.
Lauren James’ tame effort was then stopped by Sweden stopper Jennifer Falk with ease. MISS. England 1-0 Sweden.
Julia Zigiotti Olme showed the rest how to do it, with a fine strike into the top corner. SCORE. England 1-1 Sweden.
Beth Mead then failed to hit the mark, in the same spot as James, as Falk saved the shot going to her right. MISS. England 1-1 Sweden.
But Magdalena Eriksson didn’t take advantage as she struck the bottom of the post. MISS. England 1-1 Sweden.
Then it was England’s turn to fail as Alex Greenwood’s penalty was saved by Falk again. MISS. England 1-1 Sweden.
Nathalie Björn put Sweden ahead with a decent strike that sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. SCORE. England 1-2 Sweden.
And Chloe Kelly, who came on as a super-sub to help the turnaround in normal time with two assists, had to score for England to stay in the shootout. Hop. Skip. SCORE. England 2-2 Sweden.
But that meant Sweden just needed to net theirs to seal a semifinal spot vs. Italy and it went to… THE GOALKEEPER! Yes, you read that right. Falk took the all-important penalty. But skied it over the bar. MISS. England 2-2 Sweden.
Now in sudden-death, it was advantage Sweden again after Grace Clinton saw her weak effort saved down to the left. MISS. England 2-2 Sweden.
But, AGAIN, Sweden failed to deliver as Hampton got down to stop from Sofia Jakobsson. The eighth miss from the 12 penalties. MISS. England 2-2 Sweden.
Over to the veteran Lucy Bronze who struck it home with power right down the middle. In fact, according to the connected ball technology inside the adidas Konektis match ball, Bronze’s penalty was hit at 102.51km/h — the third fastest goal of the tournament so far! SCORE. England 3-2 Sweden.
And that left 18-year-old Smilla Holmberg having to score to keep Sweden in it. But she skied her effort miles over the bar too. MISS. England 3-2 Sweden.
Phew.
In the end, England missed three penalties in a row, but still won. In fact, there were NINE misses in total and the 36% conversion rate was the worst combined penalty shootout conversion rate in UEFA Women’s Euro history; the only other one under 50% was the 2017 semifinal between Denmark and Austria (43%).
Falk set a Women’s Euro record for the most saves (4) in a shootout and still lost. What. A. Game.
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