England beat Sweden in the quarter-finals of the Women’s European Championship on Thursday and Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses will take on Italy for a place in the final
England kept their hopes of retaining the Women’s European Championship alive after beating Sweden via a dramatic penalty shootout. The Lionesses missed most of their seven spot kicks but remarkably still advanced to the semi-finals, having come from 2-0 down in normal time.
Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang both scored in a three-minute turnaround as Sweden’s lead was vanquished late on. Bronze was one of only three England players to score their penalties, with four of their team-mates failing to convert.
Sweden had the chance to win the shootout after four efforts each when goalkeeper Jennifer Falk boldly stepped up to take one. But fittingly for the chaotic shootout, she skied the ball over the bar.
The Lionesses – helped by goalkeeper Hannah Hampton saving two penalties – were more clinical from there on out and made the Swedes, who won all three of their group matches while conceding just one goal, pay the price. Sarina Wiegman’s defending champions will now face Italy for a place in the final.
The Italians finished second in their group behind tournament favourites Spain. They edged past Norway on Wednesday thanks to Cristiana Girelli’s 90th-minute winner.
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When do the Lionesses play next?
England face Italy at 8pm BST on Tuesday, July 22. The fixture will be played at the Stade de Geneve in Lancy, just a few kilometres away from Geneva.
The winner of the contest will go through to the final of Euro 2025 against one of Spain, Switzerland, France or Germany. That match will be held at the St Jakob Park in Basel at 5pm on Sunday, July 27.
England won the last Euros final in 2022, famously beating Germany at Wembley. Wiegman and her players will be dreaming of repeating their heroics from three years ago but must first recover from a taxing night in Zurich.
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Which TV channel will show the game?
ITV have the rights to broadcast live coverage of England’s semi-final in the UK and the match will be shown on ITV1. Fans can also live stream the game via the ITV Hub.
Wiegman revealed post-match that she was ‘very emotional’ after a ‘crazy game’. “Today I thought about three times we were out,” the Dutch coach admitted.
She also gave an update on captain Leah Williamson, who limped off in the second half of extra-time after she rolled her ankle. “She’ll be assessed tomorrow,” Wiegman confirmed. “I don’t know [how she is, but] she couldn’t stay on the pitch anymore.”
Wiegman wasn’t impressed with how England started the match, as they found themselves 2-0 down after 25 minutes. “We wanted to start the game a lot better than we did,” she acknowledged. “That’s not a good start.
“Then really quickly they scored a second goal and we were struggling coming into the game. Then you think we wanted to think about how could we help the team. Then we started playing a bit better but we didn’t create much. In the second half we were on the ball a lot more.”