BASEL, Switzerland -- Sarina Wiegman said Hannah Hampton's story was like a "fairytale" after she saved two penalties in the shootout to help England to a Euro 2025 triumph which the England manager called "ridiculous."
Wiegman's Lionesses backed up their Euro 2022 win by retaining their title in Switzerland, thanks to a penalty shootout win over Spain after it ended 1-1 after extra-time. It was yet another chapter to a chaotic tournament for England where they led in their three knockout matches by a combined four minutes and 52 seconds.
They needed two late goals against Sweden in their quarterfinal to force that to extra time and then endured a chaotic penalty shootout where just five of 14 penalties were scored.
In the semifinal with Italy, they needed a 96th-minute equaliser from Michelle Agyemang to force the match to extra time and they won the match in the 119th minute as Chloe Kelly scored the rebound off her own saved penalty. Against Spain, they again went behind but forced a second-half equaliser through Alessia Russo and then won in a penalty shootout where Hampton saved two Spanish penalties to help England to their win.
It was some journey for Hampton after she came into the tournament as England's new No.1, replacing Mary Earps. The Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper retired from England duty on the eve of the tournament, leaving Hampton as the only keeper with caps in the squad.
Hampton came into the tournament in the spotlight, but delivered and was named Player of the Match for the final.
"Every player has their one story and journey and hers has been incredible," Wiegman said of Hampton. "Starting the tournament and losing the first game, there was so much riding on every game, we had five finals. She had to step up and I think she has been amazing. It's a little bit like a fairytale to stop those two penalties in the final."
Wiegman said the team's "fight" stood out to her as they progressed through the tournament but also said it was like no other tournament she had ever been involved in.
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"I must admit that I always think this is the most chaotic and ridiculous one that we have played," Wiegman said. "We have players that have talent and the togetherness of this team is really, really incredible. But we also have the belief that we can come back and the players say we can win by any means. We just never, ever give up.
"Today of course we had moments that we really had to fight to keep the ball out of our own net but I thought we also had some very good moments in the game. We have this togetherness -- every player is also ready to come on the pitch and show up straight away. I'm just really grateful to be part of this team."
Wiegman added to the BBC: "From the first game it was chaos. Losing your first game and becoming European Champions is incredible. Football is chaos."