England reached the final of the 2025 Women’s Euro with a miracle and a controversy.
The Lionesses beat Italy in the semifinal on Tuesday via a last-minute goal in stoppage time, then a questionably penalty that gave them the winning goal in extra time. They will face the winner of Wednesday’s Germany-Spain match on Sunday.
Advertisement
The winning goal, scored on the rebound by Chloe Kelly after her penalty kick:
From the 33rd minute to the sixth minute of stoppage time, Italy held the advantage. Still in search of their first Euro title, they took the lead on a goal by Barbara Bonansea and held England back for more than an hour on the field.
It was all going well, until goalkeeper Laura Giuliani punched away a cross to the wrong person. The 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang, who scored the equalizer to force a shootout against Sweden in the quarterfinal, struck again to force extra time.
Agyemang made her national team debut in April and had one career appearance before this tournament. She now has two all-time moments, and plenty of career to go.
Advertisement
England appeared destined for shootouts again as extra time petered away without a goal, until a referee didn’t like some contact between Italy’s Ema Severini and England’s Beth Mead. You can judge for yourself if this was worth a penalty at a moment of such stakes, but the end result was Kelly taking the penalty and scoring after it was saved.
England is currently gunning for its second straight Women’s Euro title, having won the 2022 tournament with another pair of extra-time wins. If Germany advances on Wednesday, it will be the same pair of teams in the final as well, but clearly nothing is going to be predictable given how some of these teams are playing.
Here’s how England vs. Italy went down at Yahoo Sports:
