Chloe Kelly wrote her name in football history – scoring the winner to hand the Women’s EURO 2022 to England, who beat Germany 2-1 at Wembley.
A crowd of 87,192 – the highest attendance for any Euros final men’s or women’s – were present as it took extra-time to separate them, as one might have expected from these two teams whose defenses have proved impressively solid throughout the tournament.
Substitute Ella Toone put England in front against the eight-time European champions with a beautiful lob after a slide-rule pass from Keira Walsh. But Lina Magull equalized with another fantastic strike – her third of the tournament – to force the added half-hour.
And then Kelly – another sub – made herself a legend by bundling the ball over the line, and then stripping off her shirt in celebration, emulating the USA’s Brandi Chastain back in 1999.
England’s USA moment
It ended with a delirious Kelly tearing off her shirt and whirling it around her head – just as Brandi Chastain of the USA did as she scored the winning penalty in the final of the 1999 Women’s World Cup. That, too, was the most successful edition of that tournament up until that point.
But England’s matchup with Germany was a game that did not go quite according to plan.
England would have expected to set up to deal with Alexandra Popp, the Germany striker who had scored in every single match of the campaign up until the final, and Beth Mead’s nearest challenger for the Golden Boot.
That would have involved a strong aerial threat, with four of Popp’s six goals of the tournament coming from her head.
But seconds before the teams took to the pitch, word filtered through that Popp was out of the starting lineup due to an injury incurred in the warmup. She was replaced by Lea Schuller – a very different type of threat, with additional pace and tricky feet.
Either way, the match was always going to have plenty of determination and the additional needle of the great footballing rivalry between these two teams.
Germany went into the match buoyed by history – they had won all four meetings with England at the Women’s Euros previously by an aggregate scoreline of 15-4, including a 6-2 destruction of Hope Powell’s side in the 2009 final.
Wily Wiegman wins it with subs
Sarina Wiegman – who won the tournament with Netherlands last time round – used her substitutions perfectly, with two replacements making the difference.
Toone broke the deadlock, and, after Magull’s late equaliser, Kelly got the winner by nudging the ball over the line with just a few minutes of extra-time remaining.
Wiegman named an unchanged starting XI in all six of England’s matches to become the first coach in Euros history to name the same starting line-up in every game – men or women’s.
When the Dutch were crowned champions on home turf five years ago, she used just 13 players all tournament – but Wiegman clearly knows when to play her ace card with subs.