BASEL: England coach Sarina Wiegman described Hannah Hampton’s story as a “fairytale” after the goalkeeper saved two penalties in the shootout to help England to a Euro 2025 triumph which the England manager called “ridiculous.”

Wiegman’s Lionesses followed up their Euro 2022 win by retaining their title with a 3-1 shootout success after a 1-1 extra time draw. Hampton saved two spotkicks and a third flew wide.

Wiegman said: “Every player has their one story and journey and Hannah’s has been incredible. Starting the tournament and losing the first game, there was so much riding on every game, we had five finals. She had to step up and I think she has been amazing. It’s a little bit like a fairytale to stop those two penalties in the final.”

Wiegman said the team’s “fight” stood out to her as they progressed through the tournament but also said it was like no other tournament she had ever been involved in.

She added; “I must admit that I always think this is the most chaotic and ridiculous one that we have played. We have players that have talent and the togetherness of this team is really, really incredible. But we also have the belief that we can come back and the players say we can win by any means. We just never, ever give up.

“Today of course we had moments that we really had to fight to keep the ball out of our own net but I thought we also had some very good moments in the game. We have this togetherness — every player is also ready to come on the pitch and show up straight away. I’m just really grateful to be part of this team.”

Wiegman added: “From the first game it was chaos. Losing your first game and becoming European Champions is incredible. Football is chaos.”

Captain Leah Williamson said; “We have ridden our luck but I don’t think we were lucky. I knew it was going to happen. There’s always a moment when I think ‘right girls, let’s turn it on’. The way we defended as a team, nothing came through us. It felt like it was going to be our day.”

Rightback Lucy Bronze revealed after the final that, remarkably, she had been playing all tournament with a fractured tibia.

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