It's staying home: England's road to Euro 2025 glory

The Guardian

29-07-2025

Over little more than three weeks in July, from Zurich via St Gallen, and Lancy to Basel, Guardian writers have followed every step of England's journey across Switzerland during Women's Euro 2025. Under Sarina Wiegman, the Lionesses became the first England team to win a trophy on foreign soil. Here are our favourite pictures coupled with excerpts from our match reports and blogs.
GAME 1: GROUP D
5 JULY, STADION LETZIGRUND
France 2 (Katoto 36, Baltimore 39)
England 1 (Walsh 87)
England's goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, right, fails to save a shot by France's Sandy Baltimore as England stumbled in their opening game of the tournament. Photograph above: Michael Buholzer/AP.
Click on the images below to reveal further captions.
The hour mark was approaching when Sarina Wiegman rolled the dice or, perhaps more accurately, reached for the comfort blanket. A salvage operation of this scale had not been part of anyone's masterplan, but at least Ella Toone and Chloe Kelly knew exactly how to move the dial at a European Championship. They were the history makers at Wembley in England's most recent appearance on this stage; if it was going to be anyone, it surely had to be them. There were to be no heroics this time, even if Selma Bacha's late clearance was ultimately all that came between Wiegman's players and a draw. That statement is, in itself, illusory because the manager must face questions about her selection here. She had plumped for Lauren James's explosive gifts in the No 10 position, sticking to the claim that the Chelsea forward was ready to ramp up her recovery from injury, but the call backfired badly. England were misshapen and leggy where it mattered; the game simply got away from them and so, with another ill-conceived step against the Netherlands, could their Euro 2025 campaign. A positive reading might be that England were sharpened up here: given the jolt reigning champions sometimes need.Nick Ames
GAME 2: GROUP D
9 JULY, STADION LETZIGRUND
England 4 (James 22 60, Stanway 45, Toone 67)
Netherlands 0
England's Georgia Stanway celebrates scoring their second goal with Ella Toone in a resounding performance against fellow heavyweights the Netherlands. Photograph above: Annegret Hilse/Reuters.
Click on the images below to reveal further captions.
From shambolic to sublime, England brushed off fears of a group-stage exit with a thrilling and clinical defeat of the Netherlands. England know how to win knockout matches and that was the territory they had entered a little earlier than planned. They also know how to shake off a defeat against top-level teams, their 2-1 Nations League loss to France in May 2024 followed by a 2-1 win over the same opposition in Saint-Étienne four days later. They also knew they had lost opening games and gone far at the World Cup in 2015 and the Euros in 2009. Messages came in from former Lionesses to remind them of those things, the Euro 2022 group chat still active. The difference between the sloppy and slightly shellshocked play against France and the focused and aggressive football played against the Netherlands in a sunny Stadion Letzigrund was night and day. The threat of an exit had sharpened the minds and the passing significantly, and Keira Walsh, Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone dictated play from the middle and increased the potency of Lauren Hemp and Lauren James out wide as Andries Jonker's side got narrower and narrower. England's title defence is well and truly alive, but they will be cautious. Suzanne Wrack
GAME 3: GROUP D
13 JULY, ARENA ST GALLEN
England 6 (Stanway 13pen, Toone 22, Hemp 30, Russo 44, Mead 72, Beever-Jones 89
Wales 1 Cain 76
Ella Toone scores England's second goal against Wales in a widely-expected demolition job that sealed their place in the knock-out stages. Photograph above: Annegret Hilse/Reuters.
Click on the images below to reveal further captions.
Sarina Wiegman said her Lionesses side found a sense of 'urgency' to book their place in the quarter-finals of the European Championship with a comfortable 6-1 victory over Wales. 'This urgency comes [after the France defeat],' the England head coach said. 'You could see the togetherness of our team. We knew today would be a different game because we knew we would have the ball a lot. I'm very happy with the performance. We knew that Wales really wanted to fight and we tried to stay out of it. I think in most of the moments we did but in the beginning we were sloppy.' A key part of England's improved form during a tough Group D was a shift in gameplan from Wiegman and the coaching staff . One change has been the introduction of Ella Toone back into the No 10 role against the Netherlands with the ever-creative Lauren James moving out to the right. Keira Walsh, the Uefa player of the match, credited Toone for England's change in fortunes. 'She's come in and done an incredible job,' she said. 'People speak about her off ensively, but the defensive work she does for me and Georgia [Stanway] when she's in [the No 10 role] is incredible. She covers a lot of spaces that we can't.' Sophie Downey
GAME 4: QUARTER-FINAL
17 JULY, STADION LETZIGRUND
Sweden 2 (Asllani 2, Blackstenius 25)
England 2 (Bronze 79, Agyemang 81)
AET England won 3-2 on penalties
England's Lucy Bronze scores a penalty past Sweden goalkeeper Jennifer Falk during the shootout after an epic comeback from two goals down. Photograph above: Martin Meissner/AP.
Click on the images below to reveal further captions.
The Letzigrund looks gorgeous under a pale pastel evening sun. The noise washes over the athletics track where Carl Lewis and Asafa Powell once broke the world record, and where Sweden are now flying out of the blocks and leaving England trailing in their dust. We do not yet know that in many ways this is simply the prologue, that this devastating early two-goal flurry is actually relatively benign in comparison with the carnage that will follow. We do not yet know that Lauren James will end up playing almost an hour in a double pivot. We do not yet know that Lucy Bronze will end up wearing the captain's armband on her wrist and kicking a giant credit card advert. Hannah Hampton, nose still unbloodied, has not the faintest inkling that this will end up being the greatest night of her career. But they all know something. Even if they're not entirely conscious of it. Even as an utterly shambolic England trail Sweden 2-0 and the obituaries for their campaign are being scribbled, there is a little knot of refusal there, a team with an entirely unwarranted calmness at its core, a team that against all the available visual evidence still trusts that everything is going to work out. Perhaps the hallmark of certain great teams is in sensing almost subconsciously when they are allowed to play badly and when they are not, when the level needs to be raised, when the stakes are at their sharpest. Jonathan Liew
GAME 5: SEMI-FINAL
22 JULY, STADE DE GENÈVE
England 2 (Agyemang 90+5, Kelly 120)
Italy 1 (Bonansea 33)
England won in extra time
Chloe Kelly celebrates with Michelle Agyemang after scoring the winning goal late in extra-time. Photograph above: Jose Breton/NurPhoto/Shutterstock.
Click on the images below to reveal further captions.
Chloe Kelly said England's saviour Michelle Agyemang has the 'world at her feet' after the 19-year-old striker's late leveller rescued the defending champions in their nerve-jangling semi-final victory against Italy. England's remarkably late comeback, with Agyemang scoring in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time before Kelly's winner in the penultimate minute of extra time, booked the Lionesses a place in their third consecutive major tournament final. 'Big Mich at it again!' Kelly said to ITV Sport, discussing Agyemang's third goal in four senior international games since her April debut. 'She's unbelievable and she should have scored again: that one that hit the crossbar. She's an unbelievable player and she's got the world at her feet, a young player with a bright future and I'm absolutely buzzing for her.' The match was played two days after Jess Carter revealed she had received what the England team described as poisonous racist abuse on social media. The Lionesses said they were not going to take the knee before the game. Instead, the substitutes stood arm in arm on the touchline before kick-off, including Kelly, who said: 'I'm so proud to stand side by side with the girls in this team; Jess Carter and every single player in this team.' Tom Garry
GAME 6: FINAL
27 JULY, ST JAKOB-PARK
England 1 (Russo 57)
Spain 1 (Caldentey 25)
AET England won 3-1 on penalties
Click on the images below to reveal further captions.
Penalties: England 2-1 Spain (in the shootout). Now the pressure is on Spain and who else but Aitana Bonmatí? She steps up but Hannah Hampton saves!! Penalties: England 2-1 Spain. Now the pressure really is on Spain but England cannot afford to slip up here. For England it's Leah Williamson. The captain misses. Penalties: England 2-1 Spain. So Spain have a chance to level it again here. It's Salma Paralluelo and she misses. Penalties: England 3-1 Spain. Oh my word. These shootouts. If England score here they win the tournament. It's Chloe Kelly. Huge pressure on her shoulders and she scores. ENGLAND HAVE WON THE EUROS ON PENALTIES Wow. Oh my word. What have we just watched? Kelly clutch. Hannah Hampton unbelievable. Niamh Charles coming on in that second half of extra time and scoring a cracking penalty. The whole team able to stay present after saves from both goalkeepers. Sarina Wiegman has been an international manager for three Euros. She has won every single one. Sarah Rendell