England survived one of the worst penalty shoot-outs in major tournament history as Sweden twice missed the chance to reach the semi-finals

By Philip O'Connor ZURICH (Reuters) -England beat Sweden 3-2 in an astonishing penalty shootout that featured 14 attempts to reach the Women's Euros semi-finals on Thursday after the reigning champions had fought back from 2-0 down to force the game to extra time.

England started badly vs. Sweden, turned things around in 103 second-half seconds, won a penalty shootout which saw nine misses to progress to the Euro 2025 semifinals.

England then bounced back by defeating the Netherlands 4-0 and Wales 4-1 to get to this stage of the tournament. In the win over the Netherlands, Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo, Beth Mead, and Aggie Beever-Jones scored for England, setting up for this thrilling matchup against Sweden.

The Swedes look to punch their ticket to the 2025 UEFA Women’s European Championship semifinals with a win on Thursday, as they go up against the reigning champions, England.

Defending champion England staged a remarkable late comeback to beat Sweden in penalties and advance to the semifinals.

Mead came on for Toone and went to the right wing, James dropped into a floating midfield role while Michelle Agyemang joined Russo up top. Kelly came on for Hemp on the left wing on 78 minutes. So England had two wingers, two strikers and James.

Aygemang was at the heart of the comeback, the teenager causing chaos with her movement and power. Her run down the right almost gave England a winner right at the death, but Alessia Russo’s shot was saved.