Chloe Kelly Carried England To The Promised Land

After 360 minutes of knockout play, two penalty shootouts, and three comebacks, England is the back-to-back champion of Europe. Despite losing its first game of Euro 2025 against France, and despite an arduous run to the final that further extended into extra time and penalties, England held off the reigning World Cup winner Spain to lift the trophy thanks to a 3-1 penalty shootout win. It was the last gutsy victory in a line of gutsy victories, each seeing England down and out but never completely lost. The Lionesses are worthy champions, even if they only led for a total of four minutes in the knockout rounds.

England tried a new script out for the final, and for twenty minutes, it looked like it would work. The defending champs eschewed Germany’s failed semifinal gameplan of playing uber-defensive against the possession-heavy Roja and instead brought the game to Spain, producing a match that see-sawed with consistent pressure and rapid responses just outside the box. The only thing England missed was the goal, and Spain’s own success in attack shifted the momentum heavily in the Spanish side’s favor. In the 25th minute, Ona Batlle crossed the ball to a leaping Mariona Caldentey, and the Arsenal forward hit a beautiful header to the far post past Hannah Hampton, giving Spain the lead and England yet another mountain to climb.

The remaining 20 minutes of the first half were horrible for England. Spain, with a lead, settled into its more usual rhythm and controlled about 70 percent of the possession. This is what Spain has been doing for years now, and it’s extremely difficult to beat. Luckily for England, and crucially for this final, Spain never got the second goal, and the most impactful moment of the first half turned out to be an injury: In the 40th minute, Lauren James went down and was forced to come off. Normally, a starter not even making it to halftime before needing an injury substitute would be demoralizing, especially for a team trailing, but James’s injury had one silver lining: the introduction of Chloe Kelly.

Both before and now especially after this final, Kelly was England’s best player at the Euros, even if she didn’t start a single game, mostly down to England manager Sarina Wiegman’s steadfast refusal to shake things up. Other players starred intermittently, but England would not have made it to the final and to the promised land without the soon-to-be Arsenal winger. In the quarterfinal, Kelly subbed on in the 78th minute, with England down 2-0 to Sweden, and immediately assisted a goal one minute later, hitting a gorgeous deep cross for Lucy Bronze to head in. She would then be one of only three English players to score her penalty, a do-or-die shot to keep England alive in what was one of the worst shootouts in recent memory. In the semis, Kelly herself scored the most important goal, avoiding another round of penalties by giving England a 2-1 lead in the 119th minute—the aforementioned only lead England had in the knockout rounds. To make it to the final at all, England needed Chloe Kelly, and she didn’t make a wrong step on Sunday either.

Following halftime, England came out much the same way it started the game, only now it had Kelly bombing down the left wing (and sometimes the right). While James is a great player, she doesn’t have Kelly’s workrate without the ball—a necessity against Spain—and Kelly’s recent form made her more likely to impact proceedings. That’s what she did with aplomb in the 57th minute. Kelly had the ball on the left wing and carved out enough space to turn the ball onto her powerful right foot. She slotted another in-swinging cross that found an off-balance Alessia Russo, and the tireless striker did just enough to direct the ball across goal and away from Spanish goalie Cata Coll.

Re-energized by the equalizer, England kept up the pressure for the rest of regular time, coming close to winning outright and flummoxing a Spanish side that had looked so in control with the lead. Neither team would score in regular time, but at the end of 90 minutes, I would have guessed that England would ride their momentum to yet another win in extra time. That didn’t quite happen. Perhaps due to exhaustion from keeping up with Spain’s passing, or from playing so many high-pressure minutes in about nine days, the English press fell apart in extra time, and Spain had a plethora of chances to win its second straight major international tournament. The Spaniards just simply could not convert on their chances, wasting five shots and one golden opportunity: Barcelona forward Salma Paralluelo ended up with the ball in front of goal, but her one-footedness appeared to put her off from shooting one-on-one with her right foot. It was maddening to see it in real time, and it’s a real flaw in Paralluelo’s game. That’s the chance Spain should rue the most.

The shootout continued the tournament-long trend of poorly hit penalties, even in one case on a penalty that went in. Beth Mead stepped up first for England and hit a wonky chip of sorts that turned out to be a double hit when she slipped on the shot. Those with good memory might remember that the same thing happened to Julián Álvarez of Atlético Madrid back in March. In that case, the penalty was disallowed, but Mead was able to take hers again for some reason. It was saved on the retake.

Spain next scored its only penalty in the shootout, thanks to Patri Guijarro, before England tied it up via Alex Greenwood. Spain would then miss three straight penalties. Caldentey hit a soft and predictable mid-height shot to her right, which Hampton saved with ease. Aitana Bonmatí, so often so good, showed a flaw at the worst possible time, going left but not left enough to prevent Hampton from making a full stretch save. Finally, Paralluelo finished off her most disappointing international tournament to date by shooting wide off the right post. In between those misses, Niamh Charles sank her penalty and Leah Williamson saw hers saved by Coll, a monstrous save with all of the pressure in the world on her outstretched trailing arm.

After all of that mess and heartbreak, it came down to Chloe Kelly. Despite sporting one of the most obnoxious penalty run-ups in the world right now—a high-knee kick seemingly to gather momentum—Kelly stepped up and smashed her penalty home. It was the best kick of the shootout, just high enough to avoid a correctly guessing Coll, who simply did not have one last bit of magic in her.

With that, England retained the Euros trophy, the two title wins filling up the entirety of the Lionesses’ major trophy cabinet. It was a painful and draining road, one that England made harder for itself by constantly going down early and often. But thanks to Kelly going wild in the run of her life—as well as Russo’s right-place-right-time striker play, Hampton’s shootout heroics, and so many other factors that combine to take a team from near-elimination three times to glory—England is the champion of Europe once more. It came home three years ago. Now it’s renovating the living room and adding in an annex.