MY ACCOUNT
Chloe Kelly’s dramatic extra-time winner clinched England’s first-ever European Championship, beating Germany 2-1 in front of a record crowd at Wembley.
Kelly, who had never scored for her country previously, stabbed home at the second attempt after Lucy Bronze knocked the ball down.
Super-sub Ella Toone opened the scoring in the 62nd minute — shortly after coming off the bench.
However, with 10 minutes remaining, Lina Magull levelled for Germany with a clever near-post finish to force extra time.
In front of a record European Championship crowd of 87,192, England triumphed and Sarina Wiegman clinched her second Euros as a coach, making history in the process.
Here are five key talking points from Wembley.
Germany Lina on Maguall again
Just as England started to believe they could get the job done in 90 minutes, Magull equalised.
It was a well-taken poacher’s goal at the near post, deflating England at a packed-out Wembley.
The Bayern Munich midfielder has scored three times at these Euros and each strike has been Germany’s opener.
Germany pulled England’s backline out of place with Leah Williamson abandoning Magull to poke home.
Wiegman the history maker
In beating Germany, England boss Wiegman became the first coach to win the European Championships with two different nations — both on home soil.
The Dutchwoman was in charge of the Netherlands in 2017 as they beat Denmark.
Remarkably, Wiegman has still yet to lose since taking over as England boss in September 2021 and has never lost a European Championship match.
England end German curse
Ahead of the final, England had won just two of their 27 meetings with Germany in all competitions.
In fact, the Lionesses had lost more often against Die Nationalelf than any other opponent (D4 L21).
Meanwhile, Germany had won all four of their meetings with England at the European Championship by an aggregate score of 15-4.
The most memorable of those wins came in 2009 when the Lionesses exceeded all expectations to reach the final in Finland, only to lose 6-2.
But England vanquished those memories in spectacular fashion at Wembley to clinch their first European Championship.
Popp’s luck runs out, again
After scoring in each of Germany’s games en-route to the final, Wolfsburg striker Alex Popp had been set to go head-to-head with Beth Mead for the Golden Boot.
But the forward, 31, was cruelly denied the chance to play at Wembley after suffering an injury in the warm-up.
Popp was dramatically withdrawn from Germany’s starting XI shortly before kick-off — and was not deemed fit enough to be named among the substitute either.
This continued an extraordinary run of wretched luck for Popp who missed the 2013 and 2017 European Championships entirely due to injury.
Germany get physical
Die Nationalelf made no attempt to hide their approach to this final — taking every opportunity to go in hard on the Lionesses.
Left-back Felicitas Rauch was lucky not to see yellow before she was booked for clattering into Mead.
Another culprit was midfielder Lena Oberdorf who somehow avoided a caution in the first half after several industrial challenges.
England meanwhile were not offered the same leniency — though Georgia Stanway might have seen a second yellow before the break.
Against all that, Kateryna Monzul’s decision to book Ellen White for dissent seemed over-zealous.
Super subs strike again
Wiegman’s faith in her starting XI made history at these European Championships. No one had ever named the same line-up in six consecutive tournament games.
But as has been the case throughout the last month, it was the Lionesses’ back-up brigade who stole the show.
Toone scored the priceless quarter-final equaliser against Spain when England looked in danger of being knocked out — and she repeated the trick here.
Just six minutes after coming on, Toone raced clear of Germany’s backline and chipped goalkeeper Merle Frohms to break the deadlock.
However, it was Kelly who struck the decisive blow, turning home from close range after an England corner to make history.
