Sarina Wiegman singled out Michelle Agyemang for special praise after the teenager produced magnificent performance in a 2-1 victory over Italy to help book England a spot in the Women’s Euro 2025 final.
The Lionesses’ defence of the trophy looked to be coming to a halt at the semi-final stage after Barbara Bonansea hammered an emphatic strike beyond Hannah Hampton to give Italy a first-half lead in Geneva.
But just five days after their nerve-jangling defeat of Sweden on penalties, Wiegman’s side once again dug deep and showed real resilience to turn the game on its head.
Agyemang made an instant impact having been sent on for captain Leah Williamson in the closing stages, stretching Italy’s tiring defenders before sending England’s travelling support into raptures with a driven effort to equalise in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
With another shootout looming, Chloe Kelly stepped up and struck home the decisive goal for England at the death, three years on from her Wembley heroics. After seeing an initial spot-kick saved by Laura Giuliani, the Arsenal forward scored on the rebound to seal the holders a place in Sunday’s showpiece.
The reigning champions – set to compete in a third successive tournament final – will do battle with one of Germany or Spain, who face off at Zurich’s Stadion Letzigrund on Wednesday evening.
‘I was looking at the clock and thinking it was good we had seven more minutes and they were time-wasting a bit,’ Wiegman said of England’s remarkable late fightback.
‘We didn’t want to go too early because you give a lot of space behind you too and they’re dangerous there.
‘But we know with the players we have in the squad and if we changed a bit, bring more players up front, that we can always score a goal because we’ve shown that multiple times.
‘We had to wait a little bit longer for that now, but at the end we did so then we got extra-time.
‘We got that penalty and we were a bit lucky that we could score it at the second stage, but yeah, we’re through.’
After scoring her third goal in only her fourth match for the national side, Agyemang may well have given Wiegman a selection headache ahead of this weekend’s final in Basel.
‘I said with the squad announcement already that she brings something special and she has something special,’ the England head coach said of the youngster’s display.
‘She’s only 19 years old, she’s very mature, she knows exactly what she has to do.
‘When you talk about little things, she picks it up straight away because she’s not even in the 18-yard box, but when we have to go to her as a target player, she keeps the ball really well, too.
‘Even when you saw that with the ball on the crossbar… that was not just a shot, she was aiming for it.
‘So yeah, if she continues like this then she has a very bright future.’
There were concerning scenes at half-time as Lauren James was brought off to be replaced by Beth Mead – and Wiegman confirmed the forward had been struggling with an ankle problem.
It remains to be seen if James will recover in time to be able to feature in Sunday’s contest, either as a starter or from the substitutes bench.
‘She hurt her ankle,’ she explained.
‘I haven’t seen her yet so I don’t what it looks like over the next couple of days, but we had to take her off.’
While applauding England’s never-say-die attitude, Wiegman felt her side were ultimately the deserved victors from the thrilling clash.
On the impact her substitutes made in Geneva, Wiegman added: ‘They’re just ready to go and they want to make a contribution.
‘I think everyone accepts their role, whatever role she’s given. What we try to do is give as much clarity about that, but also the task on the pitch when we make a change.
‘There’s just so much energy and we never give up so we know that until the referee blows the final whistle, we have an opportunity to score a goal.
‘We played to win and it’s really nice that we got it across the line.’