Wiegman thrilled with England’s togetherness and fight in crazy victory against Sweden | OneFootball

England head coach Sarina Wiegman was thrilled with her team’s togetherness and fight after they came from two goals down to eventually defeat Sweden 3-2 on penalty kicks in their UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 quarter-final tie in Zürich last night.

First half goals from Kosovare Asllani and Stina Blackstenius seemed to be sending England out of the competition but late efforts from Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang forced the game into extra-time. After a goalless additional 30 minutes, England claimed a 3-2 victory on penalty kicks in a shootout which saw nine players miss from the spot.

When speaking in the post-match press conference, Wiegman admitted that her side struggled for large parts of the game but the substitutes helped change the landscape.

“Of course, we wanted to start the game a lot better than we did,” Wiegman said. “Within three minutes, we were 1-0 down and that’s not a good start of course then really quickly, they scored the second goal. We were really struggling to get into the game.

“When we started, we wanted to play a little bit beyond. We started to play football but we didn’t do that well enough and we were really struggling. We were thinking about how we could help the team to be better in the game.

“In the second half, we were actually playing a bit better but we didn’t create that much. I also thought that we were a lot better on the ball than in the first half but again, we couldn’t break their wall.

“They’re so good defensively in the 18-yard box and dealing with crosses, so you have to go far post or create space on the edge of the box and we were struggling with that. We needed a couple of subs; other players with different attributes in the game to change the picture.”

The introduction of Agyemang and Chloe Kelly resulted in England turning the game around in the space of three minutes. Wiegman hailed the team for their togetherness and fight.

She said “The togetherness and fighting back to get into the game is a real quality of this team; when we’re not playing well, sticking together. They showed so much resilience.

“Changing the picture and bringing other players in, you know that Michelle [Agyemang], Chloe [Kelly] bring different things to the game. That really helped the team in that moment but also, Sweden had to adapt to some different things. Before they had adapted, it was 2-2. That’s so powerful from this team.

“Then there was luck [in the penalty shootout], I thought about three times that we were out.”

Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was also a standout performer for the Lionesses. Her big saves both in normal time and in the penalty shootout were recognised by Wiegman.

She said “I think she had played a very good game during the game already. The save [on half-time] was absolutely crucial, otherwise the game would have been done. In the penalty shootout, I think it was the third penalty, she made an incredible save which kept us in it too.

“She made an incredible contribution to what was a very good outcome.”

England’s victory means that they will now face Italy in the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 semi-finals on Tuesday night.