England had seen this script before.
After Ella Toone’s remarkable second-half opener sent Wembley into raptures, the air was sucked out of the building when Lina Magull equalized with just over 10 minutes to go in the Euro 2022 final.
Suddenly, history began to get rather heavy.
Germany had reached the UEFA Women’s Championship final eight times before and won all eight. England had reached the final twice, and lost both.
England hadn’t won a major trophy, men’s or women’s, since 1966.
But this Lioness team was determined to not let history bring them down. Chloe Kelly scrambled home a winner from a corner kick in extra time, giving England a 2-1 win and a history-making European title that will reverberate for generations.
The game put a cap on a Euro 2022 that should boost the profile of women’s soccer worldwide – and especially in Europe. 87,192 fans packed Wembley for the final, the largest crowd to ever see a women’s match in the UK and the biggest attendance ever for any Euros game, men or women.
As for the match itself, it contained some of the less desirable elements that so often characterize major finals: tired legs, crunching challenges, heavy touches and disjointed passages of play. For two teams who have played some beautiful stuff throughout Euro 2022, the game was hardly chock full of magic moments.
But after 62 minutes, there was indeed a moment of magic from the Lionesses. Keira Walsh picked out a perfectly weighted long ball that found Toone, who displayed almost superhuman composure to dink the ball over Merle Frohms into the back of the net.
It was a goal worthy of winning any final, but especially this one in front of a record home crowd. But Germany was never going to play the role of magnanimous pushover.
The visitors came roaring back, with Magull’s equalizer no less than Germany deserved. The air was truly out of the building as England had to hold on to simply reach extra time.
But that’s where the history changed, and a new era began. Kelly’s goal was no less than England, the team and the country deserved, after a tournament that will be remembered for far more than the on-field play.
Football is home. And the world of football will be all the better for it.
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