England's unforgettable Euro 2025 victory
The year 2022 was all about flair, precision, and elegance—a tournament laced with goals, glamour and a sense of preordained triumph. By contrast, 2025 had no poetry, no style but rather grit and persistence. And yet, the outcome was a familiar one. England's women's football team is the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) European Women's Champions again. Where 2022 was a love letter to precision football, 2025 was a story of survival. It was brittle, it was brutal, but it was beautiful in an entirely different way.
Three years ago, England had the crowd, the squad and the confidence. Backed by the familiarity of home, the tournament was theirs. Make no mistake, playing at home isn't necessarily a gift. It's a magnifying glass. The pressure was seismic, especially with the memory of the men's team flailing in Wembley in 2021 still hanging in the air. And yet, the women delivered, for glory, yes, but also for legacy, for representation, for all the players who never got their due. They won, and that changed everything.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Before 2022, there were no invitations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), no high-gloss Pepsi deals, but the ripple effect of the victory was immediate. Now, they are regularly selling out Wembley, their faces plastered on Pepsi cans, Cadbury chocolates and Weetabix wraps. They have become regular features in Vogue, GQ, adorning the main section of the sports page. They are no longer a feel-good story; rather, they are the story.
It is no longer just little girls wearing Ella Toone and Lauren James on their backs; grown men have joined in, too. Alessia Russo has become a household name. In classrooms across the country, young boys name their idols, and they do not just say Jude Bellingham. It has been a cultural realignment, wrapped in shin guards.
However, with such growth comes even more scrutiny and discomfort. If something is nice enough to achieve once, it's inevitably much harder to do it twice. And that is exactly how the Lionesses felt this summer.
Spain came into the Euros as favourites, deservedly. They were the world champions, boasting multiple Ballon d'Or winners and being practically unbeatable. England, meanwhile, was patched together. Millie Bright dropped out with injury, Rachel Daly had retired a few years earlier, and Mary Earps, the wall of 2022 and 2023, shockingly retired just a month before kick-off. Replacing Mary was Hannah Hampton, young and talented but untested on the international stage, suddenly tasked with guarding the goal as a nation watched.
Sarina Wiegman faced tough decisions—stick with her old squad or inject youth into the system. She dropped veterans and picked names the average fan would have to Google. She took the risk of dropping Fran Kirby and, in her place, brought in a young 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang, who had only made a brief cameo for the senior team before the tournament. Another was Chloe Kelly, who had not seen regular minutes at the start of the domestic season. Such selections sparked noise around her decisions, and those noises were loud, brutal and predictable.
And yet, they delivered. Hampton made impossible saves and blocked two penalties in the final. Agyemang scored twice in the knockouts to keep England alive. Chloe Kelly came off the bench, serving assists as perfectly as strawberries are served at Wimbledon, then iced the winning penalty in the final. Jess Carter stood firm in the face of racism, delivering a rock-solid performance in the final that shut down all the trolls.
Truthfully, it was not beautiful football. At times, it was painful. The midfield sputtered, the defence flirted with errors, and the forwards were firing blanks. When they opened their title defence campaign against France, in the "Group of Death," they got exposed fast. A goal from Russo was ruled out and then France pounced, going two-nil up with ease and the possibility of scoring many more. Keira Walsh pulled one back, but the damage was done. Headlines swirled, so did the critics of the women's game. But the Lionesses know how to clap back, on and off the pitch.
And here's the thing about tournament football—it is not about dominance; it is about moments. Chloe Kelly found hers, and so did Hannah Hampton. So did every doubted, injured, out-of-position player who walked through the fire and emerged draped in gold.
Critics will nitpick—Spain played better, the penalty against Italy was soft, and Sweden choked a two-nil lead. But if every bounce goes your way, maybe it is not luck. Maybe it is a force of will. You do not stumble into greatness. You build it. You bleed for it. You block penalties, you endure the crucible, and sometimes, you do it ugly. Or sometimes, you play the entire tournament with a broken tibia, like Lucy Bronze. That is what Champions do, and that is what England did.
The England women's team is a refreshing emergence of belief, unity and collective strength at a time when the country remains divided in many of its societal dimensions. They are a testament to the return on investment that comes when you invest in the youth system, professionalise the league and give players a stage for visibility. Love bears results, and the love they have received since 2022 has echoed through everything that has followed.
Bangladesh Football Federation, I hope you are taking notes.
Raiyan Binte Rafiq is a sports columnist for The Daily Star. She works in Sports Media in the UK and manages recruitment at Next Level Sports Management.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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