WFW: England victorious after shootout chaos and Italy stun Norway – Football Weekly

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Hi pod fans, Max here,

speaking to you from a suburban southwest London street.

Where's Mama?

She's not doing this podcast intro in.

Back in the UK for England's successful Euros 2025 campaign, but not awake enough to do a podcast today

because everyone is jet lagged.

Anyways, here is Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

Brilliant panel: Faker Others, Susie Rack, Tom Gary, Johnny Lewis, and Marva Queel all talking to you about that slightly ridiculous game between England and Sweden last night.

Enjoy it.

We're back on Monday.

Hello, I'm Faker Others and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

So many emotions.

England are into the semi-finals of Euro 2025, but what madness did we all witness?

A note, a shin pad, a shootout.

How did you all experience those penalties?

Behind a cushion on the sofa with expletives on a WhatsApp group, in the stadium watching between your fingers?

It was a trip.

And how the falc did Jennefe and Sweden finish with the bloody nose?

2-0 up, two goals in two minutes though, taking the Lionesses into sudden death.

And Serena Wiegmann's side progressed thanks to a gold star penalty from Bronze, heroics from Hampton, and despite having four spot kicks saved.

So England have set up a semi-final against Italy, who reached the last four for the first time in 28 years, knocking out Norway.

Captain Fantastic Cristiana Jarelli's 90th minute winner sparked jubilant scenes in Geneva.

We have all of that to dissect.

I'm honestly not sure I can go through it all again.

Plus, we'll take your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

What's a panel, bleary-eyed, we have today.

Tom Gary, how are you?

Good morning.

I'm okay.

I think I can sum up how mind-boggling that all was with two very short examples.

First of all, I've just realised I've left my jacket in the press room last night.

I was so kind of spaced out.

And secondly, we do this thing as the writers at the Guardian where you're emailing in your reports, where you put at the top your name and where you were.

And I realized I sent in by Tom Gary in Geneva when I was actually in Zurich.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I?

Yeah,

that's how mad it was.

But yeah, good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Can I just recommend you ASAP go and get that jacket?

Because

I have a lovely Navy Mac

RIP.

It is still in Qatar somewhere.

It disappeared.

Left pitch side.

So I would suggest going and getting it as soon as you possibly can.

Lost property talk here.

Weather talk.

Tom Gary has it all.

Marva, how are you feeling?

Tired.

I was just on so much adrenaline last night.

I just couldn't sleep after that.

I just had to like...

decompress for hours and hours so yeah very very tired but but very happy yeah alice serena who also needed to decompress we'll get to that in a sec johnny lou you've literally just rolled out of bed and you never look like someone who's just rolled out of bed good morning i always write like someone who's just rolled out of bed um good morning yeah i i had a i could i had quite a heavy one on wednesday night and i had a very early flight to um to zurich on thursday morning and and i just wanted a nice simple 90 minutes you know i wanted a nice easy night frankly and um and i was failed on on on every count

so this is basically your fault you request these kind of things and they do try you know tend to to have the opposite effect okay well i mean look i don't even really know where to start we'll try and go through it chronologically but we may not entirely but the key point is that england uh euro semi-finalists once again it was a chaotic and bruising encounter i think it's fair to say against sweden it finished sweden two england two after normal time before the lionesses then came through one of the most nonsensical, awful slash brilliant penalty shootouts to win 3-2.

Here are my scrollings from the game.

Shin pads, notes, super Serena subs, squad depth, 103 seconds, strapping, swagger.

Kind of, without writing in the penalties, sums it up.

And in her post-match interviews, as I said, Serena Viegman called it one of the hardest matches she's ever watched.

She said, very emotional.

We could have been out out four or five times during the game then we go to the penalty shootout and we miss a lot but they miss even more and we're through i need to decompress i think which is exactly how we all feel as marva perfectly summed up so tom see if you can sum up that game if possible well there's there's so many different things that we need to recognize First of all, how poor England were for the first hour, and then how

impressive and spirited and determined the fight back was.

Like, they just completely refused to give in.

That was astonishing.

How we need to recognise how well Sweden played, but also how inexplicable it is that they have not gone through.

They have so many opportunities to knock England out.

And spare of thought for Jennifer Falk, who has saved four of the first six penalties that she saved.

and is still on the losing side.

As a goalkeeper, that must be kind of incomprehensible to understand how you've not won the shootout when you say four of the first six.

and I feel so sorry for Shmila Holmberg,

a young right back, 18 years of age, who has had this sort of very impressive breakthrough tournament as such a young player, did not deserve to be the player who missed the decisive penalty.

And I've never seen a penalty shootout like that live.

The whole night seemed just chaotic, fantastic drama.

You know, he didn't have a shootout in the last Euros three years ago.

So maybe the whole tournament was trying to kind of make up for lost time with that kind of chaotic drama it oh fay it was extraordinary stuff and somehow in and have found a way and they

deserve so much praise for finding a way to do that in tournament football all the way the subs all helped out you know to be in a sixth consecutive major tournament semi-final that decade has been absolutely outstanding from the lionesses and yeah you can just never ever rule them out can you you can never rule them out nope you can't at all.

And actually, I think what was really important is the first thing you said.

England were really poor for that first hour because it's really easy when you look at the result to get carried away and excited as England fans and be on this, you know, fantastic high of the roller coaster.

But I have to say, it was a really poor performance.

But that resilience, that squad depth and so much work that's gone on behind the scenes has got them to the place that they are now.

And as you say, they've been in every major tournament semi-final since 2015.

They're the first team now in Euro history to come back from 2-0 down in the knockout stages.

And you mentioned it in your piece last night, Johnny, about England's self-belief helping them overcome all the odds.

How much does that mentality set them apart in these kind of moments?

I think there are very few teams in

the international game that have that quality.

Obviously, the United States, one of them, and Spain, I think you could say now.

But

this kind of sets them apart from what their quality is on the pitch, because I think we can all agree that they're on the pitch,

the fundamentals

of the game were not quite there for at least for an hour.

But there was something in this England side which almost expects things to turn out all right in the end.

And that can be a really powerful weapon, in fact, because it infuses what you're doing with a certain sense of purpose.

I think it infuses the opposition as well.

The The opposition know that

you're England, that you have options on the bench, that you have that ultimate, that hallmark of quality that can change the game in a moment.

And that makes oppositions quite chittery.

It gives you self-belief that however lost the cause,

you are going to find a way to pull yourself through in the end.

And that comes through years and years of, you know, getting to the latter stages of tournaments and fighting your way through.

I mean, like, this was kind of reminiscent of what we saw in Australia, where they looked, they looked really bad for quite large parts of that tournament.

The Nigeria game, they found a way through.

In Colombia, they found a way through.

And they kind of feel almost

whatever they had to do,

they found a way of doing it.

And obviously, it didn't, you know, it didn't work in the final because they actually came up against a team that was technically superior to them.

But it is, I think, going to going to get England to another tournament final

because they just have

it's, you know, England reverted to being England and Sweden reverted to being Sweden.

Sweden reverted to being the team that has fallen short basically in every major tournament, has looked very good and been very competent and qualified out of the group stage and done what's expected of them, but ultimately has not taken that final step.

And I think that institutional memory is a really powerful force in sport.

It kind of tells you who you are and it also shapes what happens next.

Sweden almost became Norway.

It was, I mean, I did feel sorry for them.

I said, I said it in my

before I said, wow, that was amazing.

Congratulations, England, in my expletives laden

WhatsApp group.

I said, I felt sorry for Sweden.

That was my overriding emotion as an England fan.

That just felt weird to say that.

And actually, Lucy Bronze described it as a roller coaster and both underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time, which I think is really, especially for a post-match interview

when you've got all that adrenaline,

I thought was very insightful.

And, you know, I get what she means, but because going 2-0 down that early with some poor defending Marva was just awful to watch.

How was your viewing experience?

You're back in England now, aren't you?

I'm back in England now, yeah.

And I felt like I needed, you know, I was finally sort of getting my rest.

And now after that, I'm back to where I was a few days ago in Zurich.

But

yeah, it was an awful watch.

It was horrible.

And it wasn't just a case of, you know, when we make that mistake early on, you kind of think,

okay, maybe we've just got that out of the way.

It's a kind of anomaly.

You get that out of the way.

You pick yourselves up.

And actually, maybe that's what you need to just kind of wake yourself up and go.

But if anything, we just kind of look shell-shocked and we look startled.

And it just reminded me of the France game a lot.

And yeah, like Johnny was saying as well, I just think it was kind of almost a summary of what England have been, but like writ large in the sense of in the leader, I think actually post-Euros win, there's this been this kind of like, what are England?

They kind of look quite fatigued.

Are they just tired from so much international football?

And are they actually that good in terms of how they're playing?

I think particularly out of big tournament football, there hasn't been that much that's excited us fully.

I think we've always been a bit worried.

I think we've seen a lot of cracks start to show.

And all of those cracks that we've been seeing over the last few years were so evident in that game and were evident in that France game as well.

But then they do what they've also done, which is just beat an incredible tournament team and just get it done.

And I remember even thinking back to kind of the Nations League and that the previous Nations League where I thought we played terribly, but we looked at it and you go, look, they're so tired.

They haven't had a break.

And then in the Netherlands game at Wembley, they were 2-0 down.

And you thought, this is it.

Like,

what is this England team?

And then they just score three.

And you go, this is what they can do like when they kind of just turn it on they just turn it on and

all credit to those substitutions because it's not an easy thing to do particularly like esme morgan i think we have to shout out because she's going to get lost in this but that is to come on as like a striker where it's it's all or nothing like you've got kind of nothing to lose you just come on you try and score that's one thing but to come on at 2-0 down and have to play centre back in a team that hasn't been playing well that whole first half and beyond massive shout out to her.

But yeah, an awful watch for that first half, but just an incredible watch for the last 15 minutes.

It was a stroke of genius, actually, because they needed the height.

They were being bullied in their own penalty box.

And the height of Esme Morgan made a difference.

And, you know, she had a couple of wobbly moments as well, as you would expect against, you know, a quality front line that Sweden have.

But Serena Wiegman tipped the dial yet again.

So they went to three at the back, and then Beth Mead, Esme Morgan, Michelle Adjuman and Chloe Kelly came into the game and had an immediate impact.

I think that the stat going around was something like 62 or 63 minutes was all it took for Chloe Kelly to basically turn the game on its head, putting that cross in and causing all the drama with that first goal.

And then two goals in 103 seconds.

We talk a lot about the strength in depth, Johnny, but that did ultimately change the game.

I thought Lauren Hemp did, you know, worked hard.

She was actually one of England's better players while she was on the pitch.

But I think the way that England played through her, Sweden were really quite happy to defend that.

I was looking at the crossing statistics about an hour through the game, and they nailed something like three crosses out of 27 or something.

It was a really, really low because obviously Sweden...

They couldn't beat that first offender, could they?

No, and even when the crosses were making it into the area, England didn't have the bodies in the box.

They didn't have the height, obviously.

And Sweden are just very happy

to sit in the kind of the width of the penalty area and head it away all night.

And Kelly,

who I think is a lot more willing to turn inside and

get the

diagonal cross in from the corner of the area,

she's more willing to get that early cross in.

And obviously, with Ajamang

as the kind of extra presence up alongside Russo,

it was a a kind of a go-for-broke strategy that

England had to pursue.

But also it provided an extra dimension that

it basically asked Sweden some new questions.

And that was what did it ultimately.

They are,

I thought Sweden have defended like brilliantly all tournament.

I think they conceded,

was it none in the group?

One in the group stage.

which is the fewest of any any team in the tournament.

They have, you know, our group been the best defensive team in the tournament.

And it did look as though Inger were going to really struggle to break them down.

So, credit, I think, to Vegman.

I think everyone during the second half was crying out, where are these substitutions?

Why hasn't she changed anything?

I think that the fact that she's actually managed to solve that problem is a real credit to her.

Tom, I'm going to ask you in a second a bit more about Sweden.

But just quickly, Marva,

obviously...

Lucy Bronze scored the equaliser, and we will wax lyrical about her very shortly because wow the experience that she showed quite incredible but I want to talk about a player who doesn't have very much experience in Michelle Adjumang 19 years old first goal at a major tournament I mean she just looked fearless didn't she she looks incredible and like it's it's one thing to take your chance in that moment but I think her overall centre forward play was massively helpful to the team and you know you look at the bench and you could say of course even someone like Aggie Beaver Jones who I think maybe a lot of people expected to come on, but I don't think that's a slight on her at all.

It's more that how Adjimang plays as a kind of very sort of in-your-face centre-forward.

She was really like leading that press from the front, and it was such intelligent play at so many points of the game.

Um, and also, actually, shout out to Russo because there were points where I saw her really kind of directing uh Ajimang and where to be and kind of really press from that front.

But

I mean, to what three caps and two England goals is just a a ridiculous stat at 19.

And one quite important one.

One quite important one.

And the other one, one of the best goals I've ever seen for England.

To do that at 19 and to do that when you weren't even meant to be in the England south, like a few months ago, you were in the under-19s.

Just so incredible.

And like to be able to deliver that for your country is just.

amazing.

And like to know that we've now got her for however many years is so exciting.

And she just brings something different to the other centre forwards and other strikers as well.

So, yeah, just so, so happy for her.

I thought she was brilliant defensively as well.

I'll be honest, I don't know when in the game this was because time kind of stood still and it all merged into one after that penalty shootout.

But Sweden were in the ascendancy when after England had equalised, and

they had so much space over on the right-hand side.

And all of a sudden, you just see this figure sprinting across.

Michelle Adjiman was there, disrupted the cross going in and

the move broke down ultimately.

And then the other thing that I noticed, did you see at one point, I mean, this is poor by the way, but Sweden should have had a corner late in the game and it blatantly came off of Kira Walsh.

And as everybody was walking away, you see Michelle Ajimang just give this kind of like look, this kind of side-eye.

Maybe that's experience that she needs to work on her poker face a little bit.

Don't give that away too much.

Without a doubt, I thought that was meme-worthy.

It was brilliant.

But look, Kosavari Aslani spoke about having the perfect game plan for England, Tom.

And in many ways, she was right.

How did they exploit the Lionesses, particularly in that first half?

Well, they had so much joy with the pace and power of Braxtenius in behind the England defence early on and also

the pressure that they put on the England back line with the pressing, which Aslani was so kind of integral to the organisation of that.

Aslani, a player who's played in the second tier of English football last season as a 35-year-old, sort of played like a player in their 20s and looked like a Champions League level player again, still so intelligent, still so energetic and intent with the way she was working off the ball and kind of helped stifle Kiara Walsh and Stanway in the midfield.

I thought that Astlani was so good.

And when she went off, Sweden was significantly weaker.

We have to say that, like, for for all with praise England's substitutions, Sweden didn't have the same caliber of player coming off the bench to make that kind of impact.

I was actually frustrated because it was all the things that Sweden were doing well in the first half were things that I thought England could have foreseen from watching Sweden's games.

You know, I was slightly concerned in the build-up about what the plan was for the pace of Blackstenius.

And the second goal in particular, while I appreciate England lost the ball unexpectedly in that position, they were very high, the defense given the pace of blackstenius it was a very risky sort of setup with a high line but sweden exploited it really well and they should really have gone three or four nil up so they played they tactically gerhardson played a really good game from the start and i they will be waking up this morning so sort of

dejected and I think they will be so sort of confused as to how they didn't manage to win the game.

Gerhardson, afterwards, of course, his last ever matching charge of the team, he was understandably in a very sad mood.

He was asked what he was going to do next.

He said he was going back to the hotel to watch the game all over again.

So presumably he was up till four in the morning watching the game back in pure bewilderment at how on earth they managed to

not go through

an extraordinary night for Sweden.

And they must think what a missed opportunity that was.

Yeah, we'll talk about Leo Williamson's potential ankle injury because it was a brutal extra time, half an hour, players dropping like flies.

But we'll discuss that in a second because we've got to talk about, I can't believe we're 20 minutes into the pod and we haven't fully spoken about the penalty shootout, but we kind of had to go chronologically.

I mean, look, it was awful.

It really was not a good advertisement for women's football.

That was my overriding after you take away the drama of it.

Five were scored, six were saved, three were missed.

Johnny, producer Soph said that you were actually incredibly calm about the whole thing while everybody else around you kind of lost it.

Have you ever seen anything like that in your many years in a press box?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, like,

sometimes you get great penalty shootouts, and sometimes you get terrible ones.

I remember England's men in the

2006 World Cup where

they went out to Portugal and Owen Harcreas was the only one who scored.

I've been at Spurs Nottingham Forest penalty shootout in the FA Cup where I think they

missed all of them.

I think they missed all of them.

So, you know, this is,

this is what happens.

It's just sometimes pressure gets the best of you.

And tiredness, actually.

It is, you know, fatigue.

You're having to do the most mentally grueling part of a game in a penalty shootout when you are most fatigued.

It's almost like one of those

tests, isn't it?

And confusion and, you know, just

being slightly overcome.

You know Chloe Kelly who obviously took one of the

penalties she scored, but she you know she says she was bursting for a wee.

Did you see this?

She said afterwards she was bursting for a wee during the penalty shootout, which might explain that slightly weird hopping run-up.

No, she always does that unless she's always desperate for a wee before that.

Yeah.

And what happens is I think once you get one or two misses, it gets into everyone's heads.

So definitely,

you know, we saw quite a few penalties blasted over the bar.

And so maybe Grace Clinton walks up and thinks, okay,

I'm just going to place mine.

And she played, frankly,

a characteristically excellent Grace Clinton pass.

She just played it to

the goalkeeper.

And then, you know,

it did descend into farce.

I literally said to my friend, she's going to leather this.

She stepped up and I was like, she's going to leather this.

And then it was so tame.

No, that's the class of Grace Clinton, the roll of the ball, you know, just playing it to feet almost.

Literally playing it to feet.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, what?

But I was quite relaxed.

Even when Sweden, you know, I think twice Sweden had a kick to win it.

I just, I never quite believed in them.

I don't know, maybe this is because

I've just come out yesterday morning and I'm not as emotionally invested in this journey yet as a lot of the people there.

But it was actually, it was, it was the same during the during the Champions League final, where Susie obviously was kind of losing her, losing her rag.

And in the closing, saying, no,

Barcelona have completely wet the bed here.

This is like, they're done.

And

I had a similar feeling last night.

So, you know, it was pretty hairy at times.

But ultimately, you know, for reasons that I went into earlier,

I did think that England would get the job done because England are just so good at just getting the job done.

Yeah,

they are.

Excellent.

Excellent at it.

Yennefer Falk, Tom, had only conceded one goal prior to this match.

I actually meant to mention it in the pod the other day that everybody had talked about Catacole being the golden glove winner, but actually Falk had been absolutely superb.

Four penalty saves, but then she stepped up to take that all-important fifth penalty, sent it off target.

I mean, they clearly didn't practice them.

I love that she had...

you know, the nous to stand up and do it, but was it the right decision?

I mean, ultimately it wasn't.

Obviously, that's a very silly question in some ways, but

you know what I'm trying to say.

No, it's the right question.

The fifth penalty did feel very early for the goalkeeper to be taking it when you think there were forwards still who hadn't taken one.

Listen, Felke's job first and foremost is as a goalkeeper, and she made four fantastic saves.

Well, at least three of them were really good saves in that shootout.

And

Ferke and Holmberg have managed to put theirs over the bar.

Ericsson's managed to hit the post.

And then there was the two Hampton saves.

So Sweden overall have missed five of their seven penalties.

And you can't miss that many and think you're going to get through.

They had so many chances, as Johnny mentioned, they twice had a kick to win it, but they were never really convincing in their sort of conviction that they were going to score.

I really want to applaud Hampton because I think, particularly, the save she made from Jakobson, the second time that Sweden had a chance to win it, that was a fantastic save, load to Hampton's right to tip it onto the post at a time when England really needed her.

Hampton said something really interesting after the game about Falk taking the fifth one.

She sort of said essentially that running through her mind was that that was one of the only players she didn't have any stats on on where she would go because, you know, they've got all these notes on the bottles, haven't they?

So she kind of could think, okay, where's this player going?

But for Falk, she essentially said, you have no idea where she would go.

So it was all on me, was what she said.

As it was, Falk went over the bar.

But yeah, completely.

chaotic penalty shootout.

The atmosphere in the stadium was one of like disbelief.

The reactions at both both ends was great fun to see like fans just with their head in their hands hiding behind their eyes, unable to watch great sporting drama.

Like if you're going to delay the BBC News at 10, that's a good reason to delay it, right?

For the nation to watch that chaos.

I kind of loved it.

If you could have sat and watched it while you weren't trying to file copy, you could have just soaked it all in.

It wouldn't just appreciated how balmy it all was.

I mean, what a shootout.

It's much more fun that way than when it's like

they score the first four each and then somebody's the unfortunate player who misses it in the fifth one.

It kind of

Sweden

must be kicking themselves because you can't you can't save four penalties out of the first six and not go through.

That's like that's that's

sorry Faye, I'm running out of the words to articulate.

Sacrilege.

It's terrible.

Terrible.

Chaos.

Yeah.

Complete chaos.

And

Elaine did get away with one and I completely agree with Johnny that once a few people start to miss it probably gets into everybody's mind doesn't it and there were people who we've seen take very convincing penalties before whether that be Greenwood for example who's normally so reliable from a spot you know we've seen people mead as well people suddenly look a completely different player stepping up to take the penalty because of those people that have missed earlier on Yeah, actually, I watched Philippa Engeldahl step up for that first penalty for Sweden and you could see it all over her face.

She didn't believe it.

Yeah, we have to talk about Hannah Hampton, Marva.

I mean, you know, bloodied and bruised by the end of it.

It had very Terry butcher-esque vibes, didn't it, with tissue or a tampon, whatever it was up her nose throughout the end of it.

Some big saves as well, it has to be said, not just in the penalty shootout, but during the game as well to keep England in it.

It's difficult to kind of ask this question, especially because of all the scrutiny she was under coming into the tournament with Mary Erps retiring.

But did you feel like she maybe came of age in an England shirt in this game, or is that a bit over the top?

No, I don't think it's over the top.

And I think actually probably this whole season for Chelsea was her coming of age.

And I think previously I was always a little bit more like I would prefer Mary Erps just because I felt...

a little bit like Hannah Hampson might have a mistake in her.

Whereas I think this previous season for Chelsea, she's really matured in that aspect and her decision making.

And you saw even towards the end of of this game where she was nervy of course she was everyone was and she'd obviously made that slight error um earlier in the game which which leo williamson corrected but sort of towards the end when she was nervy rather than kind of trying anything she was just like i'm just going to kick this out of play and take the pressure off my team and take the pressure off myself and i think actually That's a mature response to do, particularly in that moment.

And yeah, like you said, she made some incredible saves.

That one just before halftime, if that goes in, that game is is over.

Like if it's 3-0 at halftime, as much as we're saying England can turn it around and we just trust them to just get it done, I can't see them doing it at 3-0 down at halftime.

So yeah, she was incredible throughout.

And then for your first like major tournament penalty shootout, to I know obviously somewhere over the bar, but still to get some saves under your belt, to dive the right way, even when it did hit the post or go over, she I feel like she can take that confidence now as well.

And hopefully, you know, all the kind of noise beforehand in terms of is she going to be experienced enough compared to Mary Earps, I think hopefully after that, she can kind of take that on board as well and go in with more confidence.

But yeah, with a tampon up your nose as well and blurred vision and your head being hit, that only adds to it.

Yeah.

And talking warriors, Lucy Bronze strapping up her own leg at one point.

She scored the equaliser, arguably, particularly, let's not discuss that first hour, but, you know, afterwards, England's best player on the night, potentially, alongside Chloe Kelly.

102 kilometers per hour, that penalty passed Falk, and she meant it, didn't she?

She did leather it.

First penalty for England as well, but stepped up when her team needed her.

This is what she said post-match.

I watched the goalkeeper in every single penalty, and she dived quite early.

And statistically, in a penalty shootout, it's quite risky for the goalkeeper to stand still and go down the middle and you're more likely to win if you go first winning the coin toss played into that so yeah I love maths

which which I thought was was brilliant and I will mention you know within this in fact after we've given the love to Lucy Bronze for her performance I will mention in this you know the work that the FA have done behind the scenes on penalties contributed to this without a doubt

bar the four terrible penalties all the other things that had been in place were really important.

But

Lucy Bronze discusss Johnny Lou.

That was, I mean, it was, I mean, just the penalty itself was kind of iconic.

And the way she, I mean, yeah,

she rips off her strapping as she's walking towards the penalty spot and she chucks it behind her.

And then

she leathers the ball in.

and grabs it.

And then there's this after every penalty, there's a real kind of ritual because the goalkeeper wants to be the one who hands it to the next player, to the next taker.

And Bronze grabs it and he smashes it into the ground like a wide receiver who's just scored a touchdown.

And there was that real kind of simmering, seething

anger almost to her all evening, right for the moment she decides to bomb forward and

take that chance and make the run to the back post just in case she gets lucky.

And I think there is something really quite stirring.

And there are certain players who just

they want to do their jobs and they want to contribute.

But ultimately, when it gets hot,

they want to be the one who decides things, which is really kind of a rare quality for a right back to have.

And especially one who's been such a stalwart for England for so many years, who's been such a reliable player.

But in those moments,

I mean,

she was everywhere.

I didn't actually think, you know, she wasn't as bad as the rest of the, you know, some of the rest of the defenders in the side in that first hour.

I think that there were lots of times where sort of Williamson and Greenwood and Hampton and Carter were sort of passing it among each other.

And Bronte is saying,

I'm not.

I'm in space over here.

Just switch it.

And they don't quite have the capability to play that 40-yard ball or maybe didn't have the confidence.

And then obviously when they went to her through at the back,

she got released to be a lot more aggressive down that right flank.

And that was the key to it, because obviously

the reason why England had struggled so much during the game itself was that Sweden were basically winning the battle of the flanks.

They were putting a lot of pressure and

the fullbacks couldn't link up with the wingers

in the way that England intended to.

And releasing Bronze in that second half was, you know, it was a real kind of game-changing moment, I think, not just tactically, but in terms of changing the whole feel of the game and the belief that England could do it.

Yeah.

Just a word about Sweden, Tom.

It was a really, really sad end to Peter Gerhardsson's tenure and presumably as well, some of his playing squad also.

I wonder whether he slept last night.

Marva said the adrenaline was going, but I mean, he was probably having nightmares about not having done a practice penalty session.

They were so on the cusp.

And former Matilda's manager, Tony Gustavsson, is going to be taking over the reins when he steps down.

So where does Sweden go from here?

Yeah, he was crestfallen, Gerhardson.

He said, he said he was going to go back to the hotel and watch the game again, which sounded like torture, probably, like a glutton for punishment to endure it all again.

Uh, and you know, he essentially said

he was asked a few times, like, what next?

And he just sort of couldn't look any further ahead than

just how disappointed he was.

Sweden is still Sweden is still going to be a strong force.

This, you know, this isn't like the end of an era, but there will be some players who, you know,

surely,

surely aslani won't still be in the core of that team you know for for much longer just from a just from a natural age um probably another maybe another tournament for ericson

maybe two like sinnias will still keep going but it's not it's not like it's not like it's the end of an era they've still got good young players coming through as we've seen with holberg they've got they've got players like bennison you know they've they've got they've got a lot more years left in angledahl that there will still be a strong side they i just it's going to be hard for them to look back on the last

decade and understand how they've not won a trophy, like how, how close they've been.

Think about the silver medals in two Olympic Games, consistently in semi-finals and the knockout stages.

And I think third in three of the last four World Cups, which when you consider that their men's team have failed to qualify for three of the last four World Cups, the contrast is in their performance is incredible and they deserve such praise for how they've they've done.

But they'll come back from this.

The improvement they've made from 2022 is stark, and I think they'll improve again.

Looking forward to seeing how they got on in the next tournament, but they will be kicking themselves because you won't get many better opportunities.

You know, they knocked out the holders in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand when they knocked out the USA on penalties.

And they've gone, you know, within a whisker of knocking out the holders here.

So they go home probably with a huge amount of praise, but just

they'll be so bewildered and crestfallen as to how they've not gone through.

So it's going to take a little while to pick themselves up.

Yeah, bewildered is the right word.

And actually, some of the Lioness's players, it was

quite interesting watching the celebrations.

The younger players, in particular, all ran over to celebrate.

And some of the older players, Alex Greenwood, Kiera Walsh, just stood there kind of shell-shocked in tears.

Lucy Bronze, very calm.

It was really interesting seeing the range of emotions as that awful penalty was missed by Sweden.

Just to round this up, we received an email from Jim Hearson.

Dear Susie Fay et al., good luck analysing that game.

Hopefully we gave it a good shot, Jim.

It was absolutely something else, not necessarily in a good way as well.

Abject first half, frustrating second, those two minutes and possibly the worst penalty shootout on record, but it was enough.

I'm going to try to be positive.

Chloe Kelly changed the game.

game.

Absolutely.

I don't feel like we've given her enough praise, actually.

Lauren James did it all, including superb defensive work, and we've got the real Lucy Bronze back.

No idea what's going to happen against Italy, but you certainly can't call the Lionesses boring, can you?

No, Jim, you cannot.

Right, that's it for part one and part two.

We'll have a look at the other quarterfinal as Italy saw off Norway in Geneva.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California lottery.

Players, everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly, must be 18 years or older to purchase play or claim.

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Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

So, a little bit of catching up to do again.

The quarterfinals started on Wednesday night.

Norway and Italy came face to face in Geneva, and ultimately, it was Italy who booked their spot in a European Championship semi-final for the first time since 1997.

It finished Norway one,

Italy two, thanks to a 90th-minute winner from Cristiana Giarelli, her second of the match after a leveller from Arda Hegerberg.

Jubilant scenes in Geneva in front of obviously a partisan crowd.

You were there, Tom.

What did you make of the game as a whole?

Well, Italy thoroughly deserved to win.

I was so pleased to see them win because they were the better team.

And it was

such a lovely story as well.

Italy,

they've been a really nice story in this tournament.

The support for them is growing.

The atmosphere in Geneva from their fans was just really heartwarming.

And they've got technically really good midfield.

Severini, Caruso, Cantore all played very good games against Norway.

And then Direli, sort of the veteran, the veteran striker with the two goals in the right place at the right time for both of them, is such a deserving player to be the heroine, you know, after the longevity of service she's given the national team.

She was really emotional in the press conference afterwards.

You could tell how much it meant to them.

And I thought they were the better team.

Norway, desperately disappointing.

They did have a good spell in the second half when they looked like the stronger side for about 25 minutes and you thought they were going to do it.

But overall, they can have no complaints.

Italy deserved it.

And my only minor concern for Italy now is that

the way they...

they were speaking afterwards was as was as if sort of that was their final that they'd done it like they've made they've made the semi-final we've made the first semi-final since the 1990s for Italy women's, Italian women's football.

And the tone of it was almost like that.

We've done it.

This is incredible.

So

that might work in their favor if they go into the semifinal as a bit of a free hit with no pressure.

But the tone was quite different.

It was, there's a risk almost that they feel as though, like, wow, like we've achieved everything we wanted to achieve now.

Whereas they're good enough to keep going.

Like the way they've been playing, they can cause England problems.

So sort of coming at it from a new perspective, I sort of hope that they don't approach the semi-final as being like job done, which was sort of the slight tone of the post-match.

They've got a lot to offer in the semi-final with the quality of the football that they've played in midfield, particularly with the quality that we saw from Caruso and Cantore.

They're a very good team.

Yeah, they are.

And, you know, Cristiana Jarelli, Marva, 35 years old, 12 years with the national team, finished the season as Syria, top scorer with Juventus.

She just kind of epitomises the Italians, doesn't she?

How key was she?

Oh, so key.

You know, she could have had that one in the first half.

But then that, particularly that second one, to head her across goal, I just thought was such good movement.

Lots of question as to why Guru Raiton was marking her in the bat post because

why have you got the player who scored, I think, the most headed goals across sort of all five leagues domestically being marked by a very small forward player that just doesn't make sense but that's that that that's a topic for a for an in a little bit when we go on to norway but yeah i thought i thought drelly was brilliant um all throughout the tournament she's been brilliant she's she's led the line where she's needed uh we kind of we brought it up in the preview pod as well in terms of what to look for in italy and i was i was particularly looking at italy myself and saying that headers, free kicks, step pieces,

but also just their physicality and kind of how organised organised they are, but then how direct they are.

And I think what's really impressed me in this tournament is that they've gone beyond that.

It hasn't just been, okay, an organized team defensively who have then got this great striker who've taken their chances.

I think how they've grown into this tournament and pushed in terms of their wing play,

their physicality all over the pitch.

I thought against Spain, they were brilliant.

Like, I know they lost 3-1, but, and I know it wasn't Spain's full first team, but even so, I've seen many teams come up against Spain and do so much worse.

worse and they were really really giving it to spain even in terms of individual battles physicality wise i was really impressed with them and then also just that thing of just like they know what they're good at they know they're not going to be you know passing it around and passing teams off the pitch but i thought against spain was a perfect example of how they did that of just playing that ball through when you don't have jerelli you've got strikers like piamonte who can do a very kind of similar job and just wear defenders out so yeah i agree with tom i think they could give england a difficult game because i think where they've also been growing is in not just sitting back and being defensively solid, it's how they've grown in their press.

And I think you saw that against Norway.

When they actually stood up and pressed Norway, they caused them problems.

And actually, where England have really struggled is when teams have been pressing them and not when they've just been in a low block, which is kind of opposite to what England was struggling with before.

So

I also just think there's a blueprint there on how to hurt England and what Italy have.

If they apply it well, I think they could cause some problems.

And if I wasn't a big England fan, I'd be excited to see kind of what they do.

Yeah,

your dark horses that you didn't think were going to get out of the group.

My dark horses.

I said they'd cause some teams and problems.

I just didn't know how many problems.

You did.

Norway remain a conundrum, Johnny.

Marva mentioned there.

Guru Riton starting at left back.

I just still don't understand it.

And they were passive for large portions of the game, just one shot on target registered as well.

Blame obviously goes towards

the manager and will be put at Gemma Granger's door.

But we also have to remember that this is not the first time Norway have underachieved on a big stage.

Where do they go from here, do you think?

Yeah, I mean,

it's the eternal conundrum, isn't it?

And I think something that has baffled quite a lot of fans who obviously are

familiar with the star players and wonder how

a team with such rich individual talent keeps falling short.

And we saw this at the last Euros, we've seen this at actually

consecutive major tournaments.

And in a way, Guru Wright and Left Back almost encapsulates the issue where you are trying to fit in so much individual talent that you end up unbalancing the team.

And I think over the years, it's been increasingly hard to see an identity in how Norway play.

You know, you know how Spain are going to play.

You know how Sweden are going to play.

There is a blueprint there.

You know, Italy have a very defined, very defined style these days.

You know, very, very sort of tactically rich and based on quick transitions.

And,

you know, I don't know.

I don't, if I watch Norway, I don't know how they...

expect to score apart from, you know, maybe give it to Arga and see if she does something with it.

There is that element where they have not looked like a team for quite a few years.

You know, they've switched between different different formations, they've switched between different coaches.

And I think what really needs to happen now is almost the sort of reckoning

that the men's team needed, because

from their kind of 90s peak, they really slipped down the ladder.

And they basically needed to build that team up again from the bottom with very possibly a new pool of talent,

a fresh tranche of new players and

a defined identity, a team that's built around the team rather than you know,

giving it to the big individual players and hoping that they come up with something.

Yeah, I think it's a really, really good point.

We've said right from the beginning of our preview of the Euros, how do you solve a problem like Norway?

And they haven't managed to do it again.

Let's look ahead to Tuesday's semi-final in Geneva, where England will face Italy for a place in the final.

We've mentioned it a few times and we are going to do a proper preview on Sunday when we look back at the other two semi-finals.

What are you most looking forward to, Tom, about it?

Hopefully not as stressful as the quarterfinal.

Well I'm looking forward to seeing whether or not Italy can have the sort of impact in the midfield technically that they have had in their other games you know against an England midfield that we know

if England are given if England are afforded space in time, Walsh will dictate the game and England will be very, very strong.

If Italy can stop that happening and get on the ball themselves, you know, and do what they did to Norway and also to

Belgium and Portugal, then we could be in for a fascinating game.

There'll be a few things at play here.

Italy have had 24 hours extra rest.

They won't have to travel.

They're kind of, they've been in Geneva already.

But you would still, you know,

we shouldn't forget that England will go into it as the heavy favourites.

They have got so much more experience of these semi-finals now in their sixth semi-final in a row.

I think the atmosphere

will be fantastic in that stadium.

It's really close to the pitch, unlike Duet, where it's sort of you're behind this

atmosphere-sapping athletics track.

It's a good tight ground for the stadium.

I think it'll be a really good night, but England now will go into it with incredible belief that no matter how badly they might start,

they'll still be able to find a way.

It will be a huge opportunity for both these sides to get to a final a massive opportunity because of the way that things have opened up with with with Spain and France and Germany on it on the other half so uh a big night a really big night yeah for sure

concerns though Marva around Leah Williamson forced off with an ankle injury it was a nasty role she played on and then ultimately had to had to come off.

She didn't look particularly comfortable in the in the post-match interviews.

I suppose it's just a lot of work for for the medical team team to get her fit and ready.

Yeah, and it was not just her either.

I mean, you looked at the whole team by the end of the game and there was bleeding out of one nose and cuts on another face and a black eye stole from Lauren James and Lucy Bronze taping up her leg.

And you just sort of thought, even if we get through, how many players can we even field against Italy at this point?

But obviously, yeah, if Leo Williamson's out for the semis and the final, if we do get through, that is a huge blow because

not only is it your captain, but

that level of experience at centre-back.

Um, while I say, you know, Esme Morgan came on did brilliantly, you would have to shift around that back four a lot.

And if you're already looking at the performance of Jess Carter in that game and thinking, is she going to start next game?

That's a lot of shifting about to do, and you don't want to be having to do that in a semi-final and possibly a final.

So

hopefully, she's okay.

But yeah, but even the way she was responding in the post-match interviews, it didn't seem positive.

And

hopefully that's she was just being cautious.

But I think we're going to see a change in that back line.

Johnny, you know how terrible our predictions are.

So I'm leaving it to you, myself, Tom and Marva, as well as Susie, Soph, so many pod regulars get it wrong all the time.

So it is down to you, Johnny Lou.

How do you see this game panning out?

Oh, England will be fine.

England will be absolutely fine.

I mean, I agree with Tom.

You know, I was watching the celebrations, Italy's celebrations the other night, and I think that's a team that's going to lose the semifinal.

And, you know, whoever it's against, to be honest, which is, you know, not to downplay Italy's achievement.

I think it's huge for Italian football that they have reached this stage.

I think

it'll project women's football in Italy to an audience that I think has possibly been quite sceptical a bit.

I think Italy still has a lot more barriers to hurdle in that respect.

But yeah, I think they've played their final and England have not yet played theirs.

And

as much as I see how Italy

can theoretically hurt England, I don't see how they can live with them for 90 minutes.

Could end up being a do-over.

If France can beat Spain,

could be a little bookend.

France-England in the final, which would be fascinating.

Right, the Women's Africa Cup Nations in Morocco has reached the quarter-final stage this weekend.

11-time WAFCON champions Nigeria faced Zambia on Saturday in a rematch of the third-place play-off in 2022.

Nigeria topped Group B, two wins and a draw, but they didn't concede a goal.

Zambia, though, finished level on seven points with hosts and 2022 runners-up, Morocco in Group A, but ended up finishing second on goals scored.

And the hosts are favourites going into Friday's last eight clash against Mali, who progressed as one of the two best third place teams.

Morocco are the joint highest scorers in the tournament.

Seven goals for them so far.

Jelaine Shebak scored four of them.

Tonight as well, Ghana face Algeria.

They've also not conceded a goal yet this tournament, but they have only scored one as well.

So I'm not expecting that to be a high scoring game.

Finally, the defending champion South Africa take on another third place qualifier in Senegal in Rabat.

That should be on paper straightforward for the Banyana-Banyana, but Senegal, of course, carry a huge goal threat in Nguena and Dai, so they could be looking to upset the odds.

We'll keep you up to date with what's going on over in Morocco.

And some domestic news to wrap up for you as well.

Olivia Smith has become the first one million pounds signing in Buckley's WSL history after joining Arsenal from Liverpool.

That is now confirmed.

I know we spoke about it on the pod the other day.

Aston Villa of Sign Netherlands midfielder, Jill Buyings, on a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee.

She's joining from Bayern Munich, having spent last season on loan at Villa, their third signing, of course, of the summer after the arrivals of defender Lynn Wilms and goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck.

One in, one out as well, or actually two out, more out with Villa, but the WSL's record appearance maker, Jordan Knobbs, has joined WSL two-side Newcastle United after being released by Villa and more departures from the Midlands Club with confirmation.

Casey Robinson has joined Everson on loan.

They have the option to buy as well.

Right, I mean, we got through a lot there.

I feel utterly exhausted, not quite as exhausted as I did after that penalty shootout.

But Johnny, lovely to see you as always.

Oh, yeah, thanks.

Yeah, bye.

Go back to bed.

Yeah, I think I will.

Marva, take care.

See you soon.

See you soon.

Tom, please get some rest.

I'm off to find my jacket.

Faye.

Yeah, have a great day.

See you soon.

Excellent.

I hope I'm keeping all my fingers crossed for you.

Right, we'll be back on Sunday to review the last two quarter finals and look ahead to the semis.

Keep having your say, send in your questions via social media or email us at women's football weekly at theguardian.com.

And as ever, a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly women's football newsletter.

All you need to do is search Moving the Goalposts.

Sign up.

The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray.

Music composition was by Laura Iredale.

Our executive producer is Sal Ahmat.

This is The Guardian.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game, Day Scratches from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly must be 18 years or older to purchase play or claim.

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