England needed penalties to get the better of Sweden in their European Championship quarter-final and one player’s friends and family were particularly eager to congratulate her
England match-winner Hannah Hampton had her post-match press conference interrupted by a FaceTime call after the dramatic Euros victory over Sweden. Hampton was named as UEFA’s player of the match after making a number of big saves in the first 90 minutes and then keeping out two spot-kicks in a penalty shoot-out.
The goalkeeper paused after answering the first couple of questions in her post-match press conference. She told the person on the other end of the line that she was speaking to the media before turning the phone around so her friends and family could wave to the room.
Hampton denied Filippa Angeldahl and Sofia Jakobsson from 12 yards, while Magda Eriksson, Jeniffer Falk and Smilla Holmberg all missed the target. It meant England progressed to a semi-final with Italy, having come back from 2-0 down thanks to late goals from Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang.
In all the excitement of the shoot-out, Hampton admitted she couldn’t remember a big first-half stop from Fridolina Rolfo which kept England within two goals and allowed them to mount their comeback. “I’ve just played 120 minutes, I don’t think I remember what happened in the first 45!” she said.
“To be honest I really don’t remember it, I try to just park everything behind if something goes right or something goes wrong and just focus on the next action and then I come back and review it afterwards, so I’ll be sure to watch that over if it’s a good save.”
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England made a number of changes to their back-line during the game, including the withdrawal of Leah Williamson after the captain turned her ankle. It was also a tough evening for Williamson’s centre-back partner Jess Carter, while others also had difficult moments, but Hampton said there was never any danger of in-fighting even as the team found itself in a tough position at half-time.
“I don’t really think we needed to tell everyone to switch on. I think everyone knew what the outcome would have been if the scoreline stayed 2-0,” the keeper added.
“We said at half time we don’t want to go home, so it’s down to us to turn the game around and that we did. We know whoever’s on that pitch from all the way in goal to all the way up top that they’re going to put in 100 percent effort for the team, we know they’re going to be fighting for every person on that field, whether they make a mistake, the next one’s there to back them up.
“I’m just glad that we all stuck together. That’s one thing we never wanted to do, we never wanted to turn on each other because if the outcome was reversed and we were going home then we didn’t want to feel we got on each other’s backs.”
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