Chloe Kelly delivers another miracle to extend an unbelievable England trend
England, in one way or another, start again. The reigning European champions are in a third major consecutive final after a second consecutive match where they needed a late miracle rescue. Michelle Agyemang and Chloé Kelly were, once again, the heroes. That they can do it once again is a big question but which can wait – for tonight. There is a lot to blame this team at the moment, but not their resolution. They continue whatever happens, that’s why they continue to pass after the tournament’s tour.
It is not always convincing. It is not always productive. But that keeps happening.
He also favored another absorbent drama. This is what really does wonders for the female game. Theater that grabs people, then crescendo moments like this.
England offers more than almost anyone, whatever they play.
It is their immense credit, especially after the events of the week. Jess Carter, of course, had a joy. They led to the noisy celebration at the end, something that this side so often offered their itinerant support.
Sympathy should be spared for Italy, despite the needle so obvious in this game.
They overloaded just to go so far, and you could see it in the way they pushed themselves at the limit in the last demanding moments. It was as if they could not go further, as we saw by the way they could not manage Agyemang for the equalizer of the 96th minute, then the absurd decision which led to Kelly’s penalty.
As if to reflect the entire match, as well as decide, England has always succeeded. And Kelly leaps.
Wiegman’s substitutions had worked again, in the same way that its starting program has again failed.
You could say that there is a lot of luck to all of this, especially with the way they played against moderate opposition. England was probably as happy to finish second in the group and obtain Italy.
The way they allowed Barbara Bonansea to score the opening goal was random because the ball could have been eliminated three times.
There were many mediocre decisions.
But an absolute key to this should not be rejected, is that other parts would allow all of this to affect them. There may be a self-fulfilling element insofar as the more you work for a goal, the less it is likely to come, accentuating anxiety. With England, he currently feels the opposite. The self-fulfilling element is how they have marked a series of late goals, so they still feel that they can start again. He is there throughout the match, affecting the opposition in another way. You can feel it in the increasingly desperate Italian clearances just before the equalizer of Agyemang.
In addition, it should be noted that the objective was not the product to blur something or simply to make it happen by Will alone. AGYEMANG showed supreme composure by making contact to define itself, then finished supremely.
The strike also presented an admirable conviction when your team is just 90 seconds from the exit. This is what it comes down.
AGYEMANG’s later effort was almost better, except that it hit the bar rather than the net. She showed the ingenuity that England had missed with a superb lob hung near the signature, which caught Laura Giuliani but struck the bar.
It would have been a way worthy of winning it … except that there was always the crescendo capable of Kelly’s finish.
His desire to run in Italy changed the game as much as the impact of Agyemang. The crowd naturally welcomed Kelly with wild roars, just one more element which causes doubt for the opposition. The striker was duly appointed player of the match, having won him.
Giuliani may have stopped his penalty, but there was no Kelly’s stop herself. She hung on it directly to finish. Italy never returned. They had given everything, but simply did not have as much as England, whether in quality or – therefore -.
There is a just argument that all this shows how the side of Wiegman is lower than the sum of their parts, as they have been for some time. However, this has only in a tournament, once you go out.
It is, of course, that all of this is an inevitable final defeat, but the later acts of rescue like this create the same effect on the other side. So many things now depend on Spain or Germany in the final, a rehearsal of 2022 or 2023.
Meanwhile, it felt a rehearsal of certain recent male tournaments, the way Harry Kane marked a safeguarded penalty against Denmark in the Euro 2020 semi-finals, in England passing in a short time in Euro 2024.
Except that this England has actually won the trophy. Moments like this are where it matters, when it has an effect.
If all of this seems to dwell on the psychological, it is because it is an important part of the reason why England is in the final.
Their accumulation game was poor, if it existed at all. Too many movements ended with predictable shunts in the wing and a cross, or a long hope.
There are a series of personnel problems, Lauren James and Leah Williamson fitness levels, how Keira Walsh was below the peer. Alessia Russo just doesn’t look like to score, and there are huge defense problems.
Wiegman has so much to understand. In a way, she also has a team in another final.
For the moment, that’s all that matters.
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