Willingness to be 'vulnerable' paid off, says captain

LEAH Williamson believes 'brave' England's willingness to be vulnerable was the special ingredient they needed to secure back-to-back European Championship titles.

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The Arsenal defender became the first England football captain to lift two major tournament trophies - and a first on foreign soil - after Chloe Kelly scored the winning penalty in a dramatic 3-1 comeback shootout triumph over Women's World Cup holders Spain in Basel.

It was the culmination of a topsy-turvy campaign described by manager Sarina Wiegman as “ridiculous” and likened to a roller coaster by more than one member of her squad in Switzerland.

Williamson said: “Basically, you can have all of those (motivational) words, and sport has all those words circulating all the time, and then you have people that choose, it's really brave to put that into action and then decide that you're going to go for it.