Greenwood heaps praise on England goal heroine Kelly

CHLOE Kelly needed no persuasion to take the pressure-cooker extra-time penalty that sent defending champions England into the Euro 2025 final, according to defender Alex Greenwood.

- RACHEL STEINBERG

The Lionesses were on the brink of elimination by Italy when 19-year-old substitute Michelle Agyemang forced extra time, drawing the sides level with an equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time to cancel out Barbara Bonansea’s 33rd-minute opener.

Then, with another shootout minutes away, Beth Mead was brought down and Kelly stepped up to the spot, where she was initially denied by Laura Giuliani, but buried the rebound to complete England’s second successive stunning comeback.

“That takes a lot of courage to step up to take that,’ Greenwood said. “I asked her, she had no doubt in her mind, she was confident enough to take it.

“All of our penalty takers were off, so who was left was probably me or Chloe. I missed the pen in the (Sweden) game, in the shootout, Chloe scored hers comfortably, so they (manager Sarina Wiegman and assistant Arjan Veurink) said, ‘It’s up to you, you or Chloe!