BASEL, Switzerland — As the celebrations began after England‘s penalty shootout win over Spain, right back Lucy Bronze was hopping on one leg having played the entire of Euro 2025 with a fractured tibia. But it was the other leg she hurt in extra time against in the final. As she hopped around, she was being flung sporadically into the air by teammates Leah Williamson and Alex Greenwood; the crowd sung Michelle Agyemang‘s name into the Basel night sky, and soon head coach Sarina Wiegman was dancing to Gala’s “Freed from Desire.”

The Lionesses were draped in gold-and-silver ticker tape, and waved to loved ones, laughed, cried and did their best to process the most remarkable, rollercoaster triumph. As Basel danced to the echoes of 2022 and the new heroines of 2025, the Lionesses strolled into history as the first England team to win two major tournaments, and the first on foreign soil. They led their three knockout stage matches by a combined total of four minutes and 52 seconds.

We will never see another tournament win quite like this.

It made little sense as you watched it unfold in Switzerland. How do you explain how the Lionesses managed to conjure up a tournament win against the odds? We thought they had used up all nine lives after their chaotic penalty shootout win over Sweden, but little did we know they would produce another pair of miracles to win the entire thing.

And all that after England were painted as being in chaos before Euro 2025 even started, with questions over what would happen to Wiegman if England were knocked out in the group stage. England said they were going to Switzerland to win and, as defending champions, they always had a fighting chance. But no-one could have predicted this.

– England’s Euro 2025 win defies logic; Spain’s curse continues
– Euro 2025 final as it happened: England repeat as champions
– England player ratings: Hampton scores 10/10 in triumph
– Euro 2025 Talking Points: Best match, goal, player, Team of the Tournament

Before Wiegman named her squad on June 5, the Lionesses were on both the front and back pages in the United Kingdom. On May 25, when the squad met for the first time before their matches against Portugal and Spain in the Nations League, legendary goalkeeper Mary Earps told Wiegman she was retiring from international duty. The following day, she flew to St George’s Park to tell the players in person.

Wiegman was hurt and disappointed in Earps’ decision. Though Hannah Hampton was set to be England’s No. 1 for the tournament, Earps’ experience would’ve been invaluable, both on and off the pitch. Her decision to retire — which was made public on May 27 — left England with Hampton preparing to play her first major tournament minutes and two uncapped goalkeepers as backup.

Key center back, Millie Bright was also absent, as she withdrew from selection to prioritize her own mental wellbeing. By this stage, Wiegman had held discussions with several senior players on what their likely squad status would be for the tournament — some were told they had work to do to break into the first team and were second choice.

The day after England hammered Portugal 6-0 on May 30, forward Fran Kirby met with Wiegman and was told she wasn’t going to make the 23-player squad. As England prepared for their match with Spain at Espanyol‘s stadium in Barcelona, Kirby turned down the offer to step away from the squad, but instead remained to train, helping the team get ready for their penultimate warm-up match. After England lost 2-1, Kirby went into the changing room and told the players she was retiring. Bronze paid tribute to her and the news “received all sorts of celebrations and emotions, but above all — a lot of admiration,” a source told ESPN. After leaving the changing room, Kirby headed straight for the team bus and posted the news on Instagram.

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That evening the team went on a group night out. They stayed out until the early hours in Barcelona, and sources told ESPN it was a key moment for the group as they celebrated Kirby, but also grew closer together, focused on the task ahead, rather than the drama of what had been hectic few days. Despite outside talk of a crisis, a source told ESPN at the time: “I think that would be the obvious narrative but it’s the complete opposite, the group feels more bonded because of the last two weeks.”

Sources pointed to how the build-up to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup actually needed more managing: Williamson was out with an ACL injury, Beth Mead and Kirby were also injured, the players were in a row with the FA over bonus payments and once the tournament started, Earps had called out England’s kit supplier Nike.

Bonding in Switzerland

So the team arrived in Switzerland settled and fresh from their 7-0 send-off win over Jamaica in Leicester. They checked into the Dolder Grand Hotel, a luxurious base overlooking the lake in one of the most exclusive Zurich neighborhoods. The team had their own cryotherapy station driven over from the U.K. while they housed the team’s gym and recovery station at their training ground at Sportanlage Au in Opfikon — a place only a 20-minute drive from their hotel.

At their base, the players were greeted with what Williamson calls their “home from home” — which was set up using a feng shui expert. The base had all the home comforts: from Lionesses’ branded tea bags, to their own barista (James, who has been with the team at St George’s Park, too), and a big screen where several of the team met to watch Love Island every night, as they kept an eye on how Alessia Russo’s brother, Giorgio, was progressing in the villa. They bonded over competitive games of Monopoly Deal.

“There are more arguments in card games than there probably are on the pitch,” Lauren Hemp said.

There were competitive games of one-on-one basketball — as documented in an epic TikTok from Esme Morgan — and games of “spike ball,” a game where two-person teams hit a ball off a small net, with Grace Clinton and Maya Le Tissier frequently found contesting that. Darts were also popular with Hemp the winner there, while Wiegman and assistant manager Arjan Veurink were also involved.

Mead was a social butterfly, frequently in the communal areas where some built jigsaws, while Bronze and Agyemang built a model of the Zurich Letzigrund Stadium. Agyemang also had her piano, which was brought over in kitman Kev’s van. It was a happy place, with one source telling ESPN that there were no cliques, and there was not one single flare-up between teammates. Tournament life can be monotonous, eating the same food — Wiegman more often than not went for salmon — and seeing the same people, but the environment worked and the addition of having family so close helped.

“What would you do if I told you we were all ready to kill each other?” Williamson said when asked about the mood in the camp. “We’re very much enjoying each other’s company. It’s a good mood in the camp. Especially the physio room where every player has to go to every day to speak to the medics. It is just amazing, the places we have got to chill and hang out together, the little stations of healthy food and drinks.”

Every day the physios put up a new motivational message or relevant quote on the wall. Aggie Beever-Jones, the Chelsea forward in her first major tournament, would write those down in her journal — something each player was given when they checked into Euro 2025 camp. Beever-Jones would also add her own polaroid photos, and became the team’s unofficial photographer, snapping one of Ella Toone‘s family for her. Journaling was one of Beever-Jones’ ways of chronicling the tournament to ensure she wouldn’t forget any moments, while Lotte Wubben-Moy used it for writing poetry.

Also in the team room was a map of the United Kingdom showing where each player had come from, and photos of the England players both from their grassroots days and one of them now.

“It reminds me of where I came from and the progress I’ve made,” Beever-Jones said. “Ultimately, you just have to play to make that girl happy because I’d be delighted if someone told that girl that she’d be here right now doing this so I’d definitely say it is very surreal and I’m just trying to take it in my stride as much as I can and take it day by day.”

And the players also talked about their “why.” Mead and Toone bonded over the grief of losing parents; after the Wales match, they shared a celebration where they pointed to the skies, remembering those no longer here. And the players opened up on their backstories, and shared personal memories and reasons for why they are one of the few who made it to the highest level.

“We want to find out everything we can do,” Hemp said. “They are our family in here so it’s important you know everything about someone so you can help them through it.”

Bronze chose one of her from the 2019 Sweden bronze medal match where she was absolutely exhausted. “I will give anything and I will give everything when I play in an England shirt. And I wanted all the girls to know that,” she said. That image would become poignant again later in the tournament, but it was a reminder of while their surroundings are luxurious, it’s the on-field work that matters.

“There’s lots of shiny things when you come to a tournament and lots of experiences to be had, but ultimately the main focus is on the pitch,” Williamson said.

But key to the whole exercise of talking through the “why” was to bond.

“I think being vulnerable is probably one of the most important things because it brings the group so much closer together,” Georgia Stanway said. “I think when times are tough on the pitch, you want to be able to rely on your teammates and you want to be able to look at them in both good and bad and understand that you’re both on the right journey and you’re both on the right path to exactly what you want at the end, which is to win. We’ve talked a lot about vulnerability, and we’ve talked a lot about opening our arms up and recognizing who is next to us and having belief in the people next to you and not the people that are not in the bubble.”

Bouncing back from defeat

Family and friends were allowed into the bubble more frequently than at other tournaments and sources say this is another reason why morale has stayed so high. The players’ families ended up getting to know other families better too as a result, with some of the brothers going on a pub crawl around Zurich on the Friday before the final. Groups were frequently seeing taking dips in Lake Zurich, and mixing outside of the matches where they all wore shirts with their loved one’s names on the back.

The families were there behind the bench for England’s opener against France on July 5 in Zurich. Wiegman started Lauren James in the No. 10 spot, with Greenwood at center back, and Jess Carter at left back. They had four players in the first team who’d had limited minutes through injury: Greenwood, Stanway, Hemp and James.

But England had a dismal first half — rocked by a controversial offside call, and then conceding goals to Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore as France ruthlessly punished England defensive errors, and exploited the wings. England pulled it back to 2-1 and could’ve forced a late goal, but suffered a damaging opening-round defeat.

The mood in the camp was a little more tense than usual in the days between then and the second match against Netherlands on July 9. But the experienced heads helped them through it. Bronze told the team about how they lost their opening match of the 2015 World Cup and ended up making the semifinals, before falling in the bronze medal game. That gave the team perspective, but they knew if they fell to Netherlands, they’d be heading home.

The following morning after the France defeat the team met and went through what went wrong.

“It was a really helpful meeting. We watched clips but there was a lot of communication,” Stanway said. “We had a lot of discussions which are also super healthy. 24 hours after the game you’re a lot calmer and more logical about the situation. It was communicating about what we need from each other.”

Wiegman held brief conversations with some players who hadn’t got their chance off the bench.

“She did say it was a tough game and she looked elsewhere to bring other people on and I just have to respect that,” Beever-Jones said. “I think I know my strengths and I have done it for two years coming off the bench for Chelsea and hopefully making an impact. Sarina is well aware of that and I respected that decision. She knows I’ll be ready no matter what, whenever the time comes. She knows that.”

England went with Stanway to front the media after the France defeat, and she was bullish.

“What we want going forward is to make actions and stop talking. I didn’t want to do the news conference today because I’m fed up of talking now. We want to create action from what happened on Saturday and the only way to do that is the game,” she said.

That conviction set the tone within the England camp.

“At that point, the team knew that if they lost, they’d have to accept that they were simply not good enough,” said a source.

‘Proper England’

Through the tournament turbulence, one of the constant reliable factors in the camp was Jill Scott. One of England’s greatest players, Scott won 161 caps between 2006 and 2022, and her infectious personality and vast experience is still used in camp — and she was frequently in and around the team areas in the 2023 World Cup and stayed with the team at their base in Zurich this time around.

“We can’t get rid of her. I’ve had a couple of conversations this tournament with Jill, one to one,” Williamson said. “I know she’s a funny character and one of the less serious of previous teams, but she can be and she has so many experiences of her own but has this incredible perspective, she does actually help us out. When she retired we were begging for somebody to employ her within the FA just to bring her along. I’m glad that she is here and she’s found a way to be here.”

Scott was frequently on hand with a cup of tea and to chat to players both new and old. She had a routine with Walsh where they went for dinner on the day after matches. Ahead of the Netherlands match, some of the Euro 2022 veterans saw their old WhatsApp group from the tournament pop up, with retired players sending their well-wishes, and good fortune.

And England answered any doubts over their major tournament credentials with a dismantling of the Dutch, winning 4-0. Wiegman made one change, and a positional switch: Toone started in the middle with Mead dropping out, while Carter went to center back, and Greenwood shifted to left back. James grabbed two goals while Stanway and Toone also scored. Watching from the bench, Morgan realized she’d forgotten to wear her necklace to the match — having worn it for their defeat to France. But that necklace would be staying at the hotel on matchdays from then on.

For Wiegman, the win was a moment of personal relief but also pride in how the squad had galvanized themselves. Throughout it all, though, the fans had stayed united behind the team, complete with their new song to serenade Wiegman, where in The Champs’ song “Tequila” the liquor was replaced with “Sarina.”

“It doesn’t make me feel comfortable,” she said afterwards. “But they were creative I thought, so I thought I would clap a little for them.”

That win over Netherlands saw the return of the “proper England” mantra. It was formed back in February after they defeated Spain 1-0 at Wembley. They came into the tournament talking about “New England” — parking what they’d achieved in the past, and trying to achieve something new — becoming the first English team to win a major tournament on foreign soil. But after the grit they showed against Netherlands – “New England” had morphed into “proper England.”

“Honestly, I think it’s a part of being English,” Walsh said. “That’s what we feel when we put the shirt on — it’s that we give everything, we run ourselves into the ground. That’s the beauty of this squad is that we know that if we have to come off because we’re tired, there’s going to be someone else who’s going to come on and finish the job. That’s kind of just what we speak about as a team is that English resilience and it’s something that we’re really pride ourselves on.”

That mantra would guide them through the next couple of weeks.

Positive clicks

The mood was far calmer heading into the Wales match, where England knew a win would guide them to the knockouts, with Sweden or Germany likely waiting. The Love Island-watching continued, and the family and friends brought some relief from the intensity of major tournaments.

“We can have really hard conversations and keep it within the bubble, and equally after a game and when we’ve done well you can go see your family,” Beever-Jones said. “I think for us it’s refreshing to come out of that bubble sometimes and take a step back to spend time with your family and not talk about football. I know for me, my sister’s not a football-head at all — she’s a midwife — so I just talk to her about everything but football and sometimes that’s a bit refreshing.”

England headed 85km east to St Gallen for their third match. Wales coach Rhian Wilkinson talked up how they wanted to ruin England’s party, but the Lionesses were never in danger of leaving the dance early. They hammered Wales 6-1 with Stanway, Toone, Hemp, Russo, Mead and Beever-Jones all scoring.

After Mead and Beever-Jones’ goals — both players who’d come off the bench — they ran to the rest of the substitutes, and the group celebrated them by clicking their fingers in the air. That saw the birth of the “positive clicks” clique.

“It was a bench thing, I think it was Maya and Aggie who did it,” Morgan said. “We were all sort of chatting on the bench and then they started doing it. It’s something that I came across first when I went to America, cause I was sort of introduced to the team in an analysis session and they asked me to say a few words, so I was sort of saying how excited I was to be there and be part of it and everything and everyone just started going like *snaps* as I was speaking and I was thinking, what on earth are they doing?

“So then we all just started doing it on the bench as just like positivity, celebrating good things that happen and when people come off after putting a good shift in, it’s like snaps for whoever’s coming off and snaps for whoever’s going on as well, so it’s turned into a nice little celebration for everyone on the team.”

Le Tissier set up a WhatsApp group so they could share images of the celebrations. But it also maintained morale among the “finishers,” as Chloe Kelly calls them — a group who know they’re unlikely to start but still have to be ready to jump in at any moment. And they’d be invaluable as the tournament progressed.

Those who started the matches were a little more oblivious to the clicking. Stanway was asking Walsh about them on the bus the following morning after the Wales match, but neither were the wiser. But soon it became one of the threads bonding the group.

The comeback queens

The importance of the bench was there in plain sight for England in the knockout stages. England drew Sweden in the quarterfinals who were fresh from their 4-1 defeat of Germany to finish off their group. It was a match where you felt it would be decided by the flip of a coin given the similar talents of both. It started in the worst possible way as England fell behind to a Kosovare Asllani goal after just two minutes. They then doubled their lead after 25 minutes through Stina Blackstenius.

But Bronze wasn’t up for going home early as she put in yet another astonishing performance; she dragged them into extra time with Kelly and Agyemang’s introductions off the bench sparking England into life to peg it back to 2-2. Then came extra time and a penalty shootout.

Hampton was bloodied after a clash of heads and had her nose plugged with a tampon; Bronze had taped up her own calf and England — having practized penalties that week — were confident they’d have enough. But what followed was chaos: Just five of 14 penalties were scored. Kelly scored one — complete with shinpads with pictures of her wedding day, and their dogs — and revealed later she was desperate for the toilet as she ran up to take it. Thankfully for England, they came out on the winning side, with Bronze scoring the winning penalty.

Afterwards a relieved Wiegman said she thought England were going to be knocked out “four or five” times during the match, but somehow they dragged themselves through. “I need to decompress,” she added.

After the match, Wiegman was still doing media at 2 a.m. and the players were also wired.

“I went to bed quite late to be fair, it’s just so hard to switch off, especially when it’s been such a game of rollercoaster emotions,” Morgan, whose mum burst into tears when she came on for her first major tournament minutes against Sweden, said. “Your heart’s just pounding and you keep replaying moments. There was a lot of just laughing about things that happened within the game in the changing room and stuff afterwards. And then on the coach journey home a few of us got together to watch the latest Love Island episode on catch up, to try and tire us out before we went to bed.”

The “proper England” mentality was mentioned again after that match with frequency. There were echoes of the 2022 run, where England turned to the bench to turn the fates of matches, and, when asked how lives had changed in a positive and negative way after that tournament, Stanway answered: “Fans versus abuse. Fans can be so powerful, but then it becomes a point where a fan’s opinion is a little bit too much and it can cross the line in terms of negativity. What we created off the back of the Euros is a lot of positivity. That outweighs the negativity, but it’s moments like this that we just do not stand for.”

That moment was Carter’s decision to step back from social media due to racist abuse. She spoke to the squad over the weekend between the Sweden and Italy matches, and then released a statement on her Instagram page about the abuse she’d received. The squad released their own statement, condemning the abuse and announced they would no longer take the knee before matches. The statement was written solely by the players and as a group. The Lionesses felt the gesture of taking the knee had lost its significance, and it was time to stand in solidarity with their teammate.

Social media had been one of the big issues heading into the tournament, with players using different methods. After Carter stepped back, she was joined by Lotte Wubben-Moy in leaving social media alone; Walsh had already decided pre-tournament to come off her channels and leave that to other people.

“It’s just personal preference, I’ve not had social media for the best part of four or five months, and I feel a lot better,” she said. “Do I think there’s enough protection on social media? No I don’t.”

While the England squad rallied around Carter, they also looked ahead to Italy and the semifinal challenge.

Reggie time

The Lionesses took the three-hour coach trip to Geneva for their semifinal against Italy and the team meal the night before the game had a surprise guest. One of the most popular figures in the camp had been Reggie, a dog belonging to the team’s barista James, who had been with them in Zurich. The team thought he’d stay there while they went to the other side of the country, but midway through, Reggie bounded in and received one of the loudest cheers heard during the tournament.

That night, Wiegman delivered a speech to the team that stayed with them. In previous tournaments she’d used inanimate objects as a metaphor for the task awaiting them — she’d used a mug and a stuffed toy previously — and she used that tactic again before Italy as she presented a small washbag with the phrase “Bitches get S— Done” on it. It would appear again a few days later.

The 9 p.m. kickoffs were tough to navigate for the players and they dealt with the wait in different ways: some go on a group walk, Kelly takes a two-hour nap, Williamson plays Monopoly Deal and also has a quick sleep.

But despite the relaxed feel in the camp, England started slowly again against Italy and conceded a goal in the 33rd minute. Morgan started in place of Carter and at half-time, Mead replaced a limping James. As England did their best to get back in the second half, Wiegman left her substitutions late but eventually Agyemang popped up in the 96th minute to score a late equalizer and, at the end of extra time, it was Kelly who slotted the winner, tapping in the rebound from her own saved penalty. She celebrated by ushering the crowd to “chill” as she put it, before standing at the corner flag copying a famous celebration by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.

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The celebrations included Wiegman dancing in the middle of the team, singing Dutch song “We Gaan Nog Niet Naar Huis” (“We’re Not Going Home Yet”) — while the players sprayed her with water. Afterwards the team brought pizzas out to join their family and friends in their familiar area behind the team bench. But everyone was talking about two players: Agyemang and Kelly.

Agyemang was already one of the stars of the tournament at this stage after her heroics against Sweden, but her equalizer propelled her into a different level of recognition and admiration. The Lionesses had already known her talents well; Bronze revealed that sometimes she was a touch too physical in training, but asked for her to up the ante anyway.

The 19-year-old is an incredibly grounded figure and looked to soak up advice from those around her, mainly to her Arsenal teammate Russo, but also kept a close eye on James and how she trained. The other players spoke to her about what life would be like for her when she returned to the U.K. after the tournament.

“She might get papped [photographed] eating a pasty like I did!” Toone said. “I’ll have to warn her about that. Michelle, it’s mad, like I would think she’s about 30 years old, she’s so mature. She’s so humble, she’s coming to this tournament with freedom, you know, not a worry, not a care. I think she’s definitely in the bubble now, but I think when she gets out she’ll be recognized a lot more than she was before the tournament, that’s for sure, and she deserves that as well.”

A final for history

James was the main injury doubt heading into the final, but England gave her until the latest possible moment to prove her fitness. The mood in the camp heading into the showdown against tournament favorites Spain was again calm and businesslike, to the extent some staff were trying to hide their own nervousness from the players, sources told ESPN.

England’s hotel was in the center of Basel — as opposed to their other overnight bases where they were removed from the hubbub — so they found a quieter spot for their pre-match walks. And, of course, Reggie joined them on one.

England were underdogs, but the Lionesses are used to major tournament finals and how to handle the expectation and pressure. So they did everything exactly the same, including singing their usual pre-match rendition of Heather Small’s “Proud.” Wiegman’s last words to the team was to tell them to enjoy it: “We’ve got so far now in this tournament. I think we all created something again together. So these are the moments where you dream of. But go out there and enjoy it and play your very best game.”

England started well, but fell behind in the 25th minute as Mariona Caldentey scored; James was forced off injured in the 40th minute, and replaced by Kelly. England started the second half better with Kelly’s cross finding Russo in the 57th minute to draw the game level. But Spain wouldn’t go away.

In the 71st minute, Wiegman introduced Agyemang — with her father capturing the moment in the stands and saying a short prayer — but there was to be no super-sub reaction this time. The game inevitably fell to extra time, and Hampton kept England in it with a string of wonderful saves, while Bronze eventually succumbed to injury — injuring her other leg (the one which didn’t have a broken tibia).

It would be penalties again. While Mead slipped and had to re-take her first effort, which was saved, Hampton saved two of her own and Salma missed, leaving Kelly to smash home the winner, with her shot reaching 110km/h — the fastest at the entire tournament.

Pandemonium ensued. Wiegman was launched into the air by assistant Veurink — in his final match with England before taking on the Netherlands job — and the players ran to Hampton, Kelly and anyone and everyone wearing the Three Lions shirt. Agyemang was crowned Young Player of the Tournament as the crowd sang her name, while Kelly remembered her rollercoaster year and the tears flowed as she looked at her family in the crowd. Williamson nursed her bust lip, thanks to an elbow from Esther González, and “Sweet Caroline” rang out, just like it did in 2022. The staff looked at each other in disbelief at what they’d witnessed, and by the time Gala’s “Freed from Desire” rang out, Wiegman was dancing with the rest of the team.

“I bet you were impressed with that, at my age?” she later said. Goalkeeper Khiara Keating tripped over a flag she was carrying, while Hampton hugged her parents in the crowd. And everyone was covered in tickertape, sweat — blood in Williamson’s case — and tears. And Bronze nursed her broken tibia, though it was her other leg that was now entirely strapped.

“It’s something we’ve known about in camp, but I think she’s very good and she just gets on with it and no one really truly knows how much she’s dealing with,” substitute Niamh Charles said. “To play on that is pretty incredible but if there was anyone to do it, it would have been her. That’s proper, proper England.”

Afterwards the team sang Queen’s “I Want to Break Free” in the changing room, and cheered as each player came back into the room having done their postmatch commitments. They walked a massive speaker through the media interview zone blaring out Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and then back in the changing room, they repeatedly sang Wiegman’s new “Tequila/Sarina” song and the “Tooney and Alessia Russo” song from 2022.

They headed back to their hotel in Zurich to continue the party. Hampton carried Reggie into the festivities and they danced and reveled in the most chaotic of tournament wins of all time.

Additional reporting from Emily Keogh.

Source: www.espn.com – TOP.