Key points
- England manager has termed it one of the hardest games
- England scored 10 goals in their final two Group D matches
- England will face Italy in semi-final
ZURICH, Switzerland: England roared into the semi-finals of Women’s Euro 2025 on Thursday after coming back from two goals down and then beating Sweden 3-2 in a chaotic penalty shoot-out to continue their title defence.
AFP reported that Smilla Holmberg blasted over from the spot to settle the shootout drama in Zurich after the match finished 2-2 thanks to Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang’s quick-fire strikes just as England looked to be limping out of the tournament.
The reigning European champions were staring at elimination with 11 minutes remaining in normal time after Kosovare Asllani, who opened the scoring with her 50th international goal in the second minute, and Stina Blackstenius shot Sweden into a two-goal lead at half-time.
BBC cited England manager Sarina Wiegman as saying, “That was one of the hardest games I have ever watched. We could have been out four or five times”.
“We started badly. We didn’t create anything so we changed shape and we scored two goals which was crazy. The shootout, we missed a lot but they missed more and we’re through.”
England will face Italy, who are in the last four for the first time since 1997, in the last four in Geneva on Tuesday after a rollercoaster comeback.
England survive
England scored 10 goals in their final two Group D matches to reach the last eight but showed none of that attacking flair in the early stages at the Letzigrund Stadium, AFP reported.
Sweden were on the front foot from the off and somehow it was no surprise when Asllani drilled home her opener after just one minute and 46 seconds, the attacking midfielder being left completely free to collect Blackstenius’ lay-off and score.
Jess Carter’s loose pass led to that goal and moments later goalkeeper Hannah Hampton almost gifted Blackstenius her third goal of the tournament after miscontrolling the ball and allowing the Arsenal striker to bear down on an open goal before Leah Williamson slid in to cut out the danger.
Extra time passed without much incident and that left the shootout in which a parade of poor penalties ended with Holmberg ballooning her effort way over and sending England through.
