By Philip O’Connor
BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) -Chloe Kelly fired in the decisive spot-kick as England beat Spain 3-1 in a penalty shootout to win Euro 2025 on Sunday, successfully defending the title they won three years ago after an enthralling game that ended 1-1 after extra time.
It was another spectacular turnaround from Sarina Wiegman’s side, who came back from two goals down to beat Sweden in a shootout in the last eight and beat Italy in the semi-finals with another extra-time goal from Kelly.
World and Nations League champions Spain made the breakthrough in the 25th minute as Ona Batlle crossed and caught the England defence flat-footed, allowing Mariona Caldentey to head the ball past goalkeeper Hannah Hampton.
With Lauren James suffering an ankle injury, England were struggling, but Kelly came off the bench to replace her just before the break and it proved an inspired substitution.
Kelly helped close down England’s porous left flank and provided the cross for Alessia Russo to level in the 57th minute, the forward heading home her inch-perfect assist.
Spain continued to monopolise the ball but could not find another goal before the end of normal time, and the story continued through extra time as they pressed and probed, but could not break the English defence as the game finished 1-1.
The Spaniards got the shootout off to a great start when Cata Coll stopped Beth Mead’s effort, but England keeper Hannah Hampton saved from Caldentey and from Aitana Bonmati to put England in the driving seat.
Coll got Spain back into it with another one-handed stop to block Leah Williamson, but Spain substitute Salma Paralluelo hit her kick wide of the target.
That set the stage for Kelly to repeat her 2022 heroics, when she scored the extra-time winner over Germany that won them the title at Wembley.
PRANCING KELLY
Kelly made her trademark prancing run-up before smashing the ball into the net and peeling away in ecstasy to celebrate with her teammates in front of the England fans.
“I’m so proud, so proud of this team, so grateful to wear this badge, and I’m so proud to be English … I was cool, I was composed and I knew I was going to hit the back of the net,” Kelly said.
The final was the first time since the inaugural edition in 1984, in which England were beaten by Sweden, that the game was decided by a penalty shootout.
“Unbelievable, incredible, showing throughout this tournament we can come back when we go a goal down, and we have that grit,” an elated Hampton said.
“We’ve got English blood in us, so we never say die and we just keep going, and we did that today.”
For Spain’s Bonmati, the defeat was bitter.
“I don’t have much emotion left to be honest. I have emptied myself of emotion. We are all exhausted,” she said.
“I have to say sorry, because it was my fault in the end, but I was not able to score it (the penalty). Congratulations to our opponents. In my opinion we were superior in the match, (but) on some occasions, that’s not enough in football.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ed Osmond)
