England’s Lucy Bronze hailed for Euro 2025 quarterfinal heroics

ZURICH, Switzerland — Lucy Bronze was hailed as “one of a kind” by Sarina Wiegman after England’s penalty-shootout win over Sweden.

Bronze, in her seventh major tournament, was exceptional for England as she helped them battle back from 2-0 down to force a penalty shootout. England were staring at an early exit from Euro 2025 with Sweden in control of the game until Wiegman made a flurry of substitutions around the 70-minute mark.

In the 79th minute, Bronze nodded home a Chloe Kelly cross, kicked an advertising hoarding, and 103 seconds later, Michelle Agyemang scored the equaliser.

In a chaotic penalty shootout where just five of 14 penalties were scored, Bronze smashed home what proved to be the winning kick for England as they edged Sweden 3-2 on penalties to book a semifinal spot with Italy.

Bronze came in for plenty or praise post-match, and Wiegman hailed her as one of the most remarkable players she has ever coached.

“Lucy Bronze is just one of a kind, I have never, ever seen this before in my life,” Wiegman said.

“I’m a very lucky person that I’ve worked with so many incredible people and incredible football players, and there are so, so many, but what she does and her mentality, and how she did that penalty and the goal, at the far post, she gets it in the net.

“But that’s not what defines her. What defines her is that resilience, that fight. I think the only way to get her off the pitch is in a wheelchair.”

Wiegman said she had never seen a match like it, and extra-time was at times, chaotic.

In the 113th minute, Hannah Hampton sustained a bloodied nose, and while she was getting attention, Bronze taped up her own thigh. At this stage, Bronze was captain — the armband around wrist, rather than the arm as is usual. As she strode forward to take England’s penalty, she ripped off the strapping and then smashed the ball at 102.51km/h to tee up England’s winning moment.

“I just felt a little bit tight at the end of the game and I thought, I just need to get through to make sure I can keep going, but I thought, it’s going to hinder me in a penalty so then, I didn’t expect it to go to the sixth penalty, so I didn’t take it off and then it was my penalty and I thought, I need to take this off,” Bronze said of the strapping. “I’m going to actually smack it.”

Beth Mead said of Bronze: “I think Lucy was chaotic in herself right there, A lot going on with her taping her leg up. She was taping her. She became a physio. She became a striker. She nailed the best penalty of the day.

“She did it all and I think Lucy really showed her experience in them moments. She’s our most experienced England player and I think she was one of the players that very much got that determination out of us all today.”

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And for Bronze herself, that win showed England can find a way to triumph in these sorts of matches, by any means necessary.

England’s mantra at these Euros is playing football the “proper England” way, and when Bronze was asked post-match if that was proper England and proper Lucy Bronze, she responded: “Lucy Bronze is proper England!

“We have so many talented players and we can play beautiful football. But I think what I was trying to get at yesterday is that we don’t have to, we have to win in a different kind of way.

“Whether that’s taking it to extra time to penalties, even missing penalties and the mentality of having players. The likes of Chloe [Kelly], likes of Hannah [Hampton]. Tonight was what we mean when we talk about proper England, it wasn’t beautiful but it got us through.”