It’s staying home: England’s road to Euro 2025 glory – in pictures | OneFootball

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 the 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)

The hour 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

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

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 offensively, 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

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 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

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

HOMECOMING AND PARADE

28 & 29 JULY, SOUTHEND AIRPORT AND LONDON

And, yes, here it comes, so good, so good, it’s Sweet Caroline. Wiki fact: in a 2007 interview, Neil Diamond stated the inspiration for the song was John F Kennedy‘s daughter Caroline Kennedy, who was 11 years old at the time it was released. The players do the dance you have seen at weddings and at special nights down the local, jumping around together. There’s a long session ahead, and Alex promises more music. Next up, Celine Dion’s version of River Deep, Mountain High. Yes, really. Yara El-Shaboury

Header image: [Photograph: Harriet Lander/The FA/Getty Images]