100 years after their Football Association banned women, England win a first ever major tournament
#8 England 2–1 #5 Germany (After Extra Time)
In 1921, the Football Association banned women from playing on the grounds of their members because the game was deemed to be unsuitable for women. In 1966, there was a groundswell of opinion after the England men won the World Cup to let women play. The ban was lifted in 1972. At that point, Germany had just lifted its own 20 year ban.
England, men and women, have marinated in the 1966 win and the subsequent failures for all the time since, but today — an England side won again in Wembley.
Germany had never lost a European final, before today, and sat at 8–0. One of those 8 was the 2009 final, where Germany beat England.
There were 87,192 in attendance, the most for any Euro (male or female) ever.
There was one final string to pull in the history of everything, as Alexandra Popp and Beth Mead entered today level on 6 goals each but Popp pulled a muscle in the warm up and did not play — leaving Mead to claim the Golden Boot, with 6 goals and 5 assists.
Once again, England were led by Ellen White, a normally prolific goalscorer who has underperformed during this tournament. Germany were led by Lea Schüller. First clear chance came when a German corner was blocked on the line by Mary Earps in the 24th minute and she scooped up the rebound. Ellen White missed another chance in the 39th minute.
Early in the second half, a mistake by Millie Bright was not capitalized on by Tabea Waßmuth. In the 49th minute, Lena Magull, toe poked a ball wide. Against the run of play in the 62nd minute, Ella Toone chipped the keeper on the run from a Kiera Walsh pass to put England ahead. Three minutes later, Lena Magull hit the post and the rebound dropped to Earps in the England net. With England taking the momentum, a German counter attack down the right was met by Magull on the near post for the equalizer in the 79th minute.
The first half of extra time was dominated by Germany but they could not break through, the second half was England’s and Chloe Kelly poked home the winner on the scramble in the 109th minute. England then executed a master (or mistress?) class in keeping the ball away from Germany for ten minutes and the historic win was complete.
Thank you for following us on this fantastic journey around England. We’ll be back with league play (including the English WSL and the German Frauen Bundesliga) so stay tuned here and on Twitter
