No need for logic as Kelly delivers magic and chaos

The Euro 2022 match-winner turned Euro 2025 saviour to keep the Lionesses alive in Zurich, writes Jamie Braidwood

- Jamie Braidwood

Chloe Kelly walks up to the penalty spot as if she’s in her back garden. She stops. She pauses. She picks the ball up and spins it back onto the spot, as if no one is watching or waiting for the kick to keep England’s Euro defence alive, after three successive misses. So Kelly waits a little longer. She spins the ball back onto the spot three more times.

Kelly actually needs to pee. Some England players on the halfway line have lost track of the score as Kelly steps back. She locks eyes with goalkeeper Jennifer Falk and can’t help herself from grinning due to the sheer enormity of the moment. But Kelly sticks with what she knows: she lifts her left leg, skips a little, and, with her right foot, effortlessly places the biggest penalty of her life into the corner. Confident? That doesn’t quite cut it. “She was getting a lot of momentum, the goalkeeper,” Kelly said afterwards.

Did Kelly know that Sweden’s goalkeeper was up next, with the chance to knock England out and send Sweden through? Probably not. But given the way Kelly turned and roared at the England fans in Zurich as Falk picked herself up to walk to the spot, you wouldn’t put it past her. “It was the same as the Nigerian game,” Kelly said when asked what was going through her mind. “I was bursting for a wee.”

Pure Kelly. Pure chaos. Even when Falk then missed, there was a lot still to unfold in a remarkable, mind-twisting shootout in Zurich. But the player who needed to take the penalty to keep England in the Euros turned out to be the right one. It could only be the right one. Up fifth, Kelly had twice won a penalty shootout for England, against Nigeria in the World Cup and Brazil in the Finalissima. This was her moment to save them, just as Kelly had already done, around 45 minutes before.