2025: England defend Women's EURO title

Having beaten Germany 2-1 at Wembley to lift their first major title at UEFA Women's EURO 2022, England overcame Spain 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Basel to win back-to-back editions of the competition.

A European champion in 2017 with the Netherlands before earning back-to-back crowns with England, Sarina Wiegman became only the second coach to win three consecutive Women's EURO titles, matching Tina Theune's three in a row for Germany (1997, 2001, 2005).

England started off their campaign with a disappointing 2-1 loss to France, Keira Walsh's strike from outside the box not enough to grab a point. However, the Lionesses bounced back with an impressive 4-0 win against Netherlands, with three assists from Alessia Russo and two Lauren James goals helping them to get the better of Wiegman's former team.

Needing victory against neighbours Wales to be sure of a quarter-final place as Group D runners-up, England won 6-1 against the tournament debutants, with six different players getting on the scoresheet, and Walsh being named Player of the Match.

World champions Spain, meanwhile, had emerged as the team to beat, following up a 5-0 opening-day win against Portugal with a 6-2 defeat of Belgium and a 3-1 success against Italy. They eliminated hosts Switzerland in the quarter-finals, then battled their way past Germany in the semis, Aitana Bonmatí conjuring up the only goal in extra time.

England's route to the final was more tortuous. Sweden took a 2-0 lead against them in the quarter-finals, but Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang scored late on to force extra time. With no further goals, it went to penalties, and Hannah Hampton stole the show by saving two Swedish spot kicks as her side advanced to the last four, where England's fighting spirit was further in evidence in a 2-1 comeback win against Italy.

Here, Agyemang struck even later to take the game to extra time, but Wiegman's charges avoided another shoot-out thanks to Chloe Kelly (scorer of England's extra-time winner against Germany in the 2022 final) tidying away a rebound after her 119th-minute penalty was saved.

England named an unchanged XI for the final against Spain, yet went behind again as Mariona Caldentey netted for Spain. They levelled when Kelly's curling cross was headed home by Russo, and then weathered intense pressure in extra time to keep the score at 1-1 after 120 minutes. Hampton was pivotal once more, making two further shoot-out saves to tee up Kelly to thump in the penalty that secured the title.

"Sometimes when you play against Spain, they're such an incredible football team and it can feel quite relentless," captain Leah Williamson told UEFA after the final whistle. "But I feel like we were relentless today; every single time one of them had the ball, one of us was covered by our [team-mate]. We played some lovely football in the second half to get ourselves back into the game, and ultimately just did the job."

Kelly, Hampton, Russo and defender Bronze were all named in the official Team of the Tournament, while Agyemang was selected as Young Player of the Tournament for her contribution. Spain's Bonmatí was the Player of the Tournament and also featured in the Team of the Tournament alongside team-mates Irene Paredes, Patri Guijarro and Alexia Putellas.

In total, 106 goals were scored in Switzerland, 11 more than the record tally set at Women's EURO 2022, and a new attendance record was established too: 657,291 fans attended the games (an average of 21,203 per match), compared with the previous record of 574,875.