Follow our live coverage of England vs. Germany in the Women’s Euro 2022 final.
As England beat Sweden 4-0 on Tuesday to reach the Women’s European Championship final, the country celebrated a historic moment. Shared experiences, a shared team, a shared dream.
To explain the breadth of the impact across England, The Athletic sent writers to multiple locations to see how the match was enjoyed. Here is what they saw and heard…
7.45pm — Pre-match. Tim Spiers, Boxpark Wembley, north London
World in Motion. Beer. Sweet Caroline. Beer. Tubthumping. Beer.
The Boxpark formula is a familiar one and everyone knows the script.
In between England playlist songs, 129-cap Rachel Yankey takes to the stage.
“Georgia Stanway has been the surprise player of the tournament,” Yankey, who scored 19 times for England, says. “She’s driven the team on in moments. The supersub (Alessia Russo) will come on and make a difference. Lucy Bronze was outstanding against Spain (in the quarter-final), she’s gonna have a big game today.”
Yankey is asked if she could play one song to fire the team up before kick-off at Bramall Lane tonight, what would it be?
“Some slow jam r&b. I’d want to slow things right down.”
That won’t wash here, Rachel.
“But OK… it’s got to be a bit of Three Lions. It’s coming home, innit.”
That’s better.
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Six people are then encouraged on stage for a loudest roar competition.
This is Boxpark.
Leave your inhibitions at the door. And get your roar on.
7.46pm — Pre-match. Michael Bailey, North Walsham Town FC, Norfolk
The evening is glorious here on the fringes of North Walsham, the Norfolk market town England’s Lauren Hemp calls home, at the football club she played for twice and regularly outshone her male team-mates, not only technically but physically, too. Their ladies’ secretary Josh Roper is here, as he was when helping to coach Hemp through to under-16 level.
“The boys would give her an extra yard and then she’d just go past them. She just stood out,” Roper beams. It’s been a big few weeks for the club. Tonight is bigger again.
By the time the national anthem starts in Sheffield, the training sessions outside have been wrapped up and more than 60 people are in the clubhouse singing along. The vast majority are female; more than half look young enough to harbour their own dreams of emulating local hero Hemp.
8pm — Kick-off. Sam Brown, a train from London to York, somewhere in Hertfordshire
I’ve made my peace with missing most of the game. After the train travails in the UK today, due to overhead power problems at Peterborough, I just want to get home — 11.30pm is the target.
Watching history can wait. I’m living it tonight by the death or glory of push notifications.
8.15pm — Michael Walker, the Stack bar, Sunderland
At the Stack in Seaburn, not far from where Roker Park stood for a century, the Sunderland Women players have gathered after training to watch the match together. They did this before the Norway game — 8-0! — having trained on nearby Roker beach, watched by the locals.
Lucy Bronze and Beth Mead are ex-Sunderland players in the team, as is Sunderland-born Jill Scott on the bench, alongside another former player for the club, Demi Stokes. Sunderland’s Lionesses connections are long and deep, as Steph Houghton — the Durham-born skipper and another with this club on her CV, who missed this tournament after a season ruined by injury — would confirm.
There is initial confidence around the table, but England’s nervy start provokes anxious glances and the odd expletive. The food and drinks (soft) are offering a diversion.
8.16pm — Bailey, North Walsham
There is anxiety. Nerves. Distraction. A giant bag of strawberry laces has already been cracked open by the quartet of girls closest to the big screen. It’s feeling like it may be one of those nights.
8.34pm — Walker, Sunderland
It’s 1-0 to England, and it’s a goal made in Sunderland. It’s Bronze to Mead and into the back of the net and there’s a roar and applause and knowing smiles around the table.
Sunderland captain Keira Ramshaw played with ‘Meado’ and remembers the then 16-year-old coming to the club from Middlesbrough, their neighbours 30 miles away down England’s north east coast. “She always had that thing about her,” Ramshaw says of the now-Arsenal forward. “She knew where she was going. It’s amazing to see her up there. She’s a great personality and we’re still close friends.”
A night for the former Lasses 😍💪#SAFCWomen | @Lionesses https://t.co/VGPvfhBsCd
— Sunderland AFC Women (@SAFCWomen) July 26, 2022
8.34pm — Charlotte Harpur, Bramall Lane press box, Sheffield
England lead. Michael Cox barely reacts.
8.34pm — Bailey, North Walsham
The eruption came a few seconds earlier. Hemp’s break down the left and cross to Ellen White would have been perfect for this room. The roar that greets Mead’s opener seconds later is just a continuation of that noise. Hemp played her part, and that was enough. Everyone is off their seats, and not a drop of drink wasted.
8.34pm — Brown, now an hour out of London
I’m living this through Livescore text alerts. A small fist-pump is all I can do, as I’m sitting in first class with a standard ticket.
8.49pm — Half-time. Spiers, Boxpark Wembley
Boxpark’s three locations in and around London — Croydon, Shoreditch and Wembley — have become synonymous with watching big England tournament matches in recent years, but this is the first time the women’s game has attracted sell-out venues full of England fans drinking beer that comes in four-pint pitchers.
And it’s, well… nicer. No needless aggression, no misplaced machismo, just a pleasant communal experience. Sweden’s national anthem isn’t booed, the pre-match taking of the knee is applauded and nobody is thrown out for singing songs relating to the Second World War.
Some have come straight from work, some are here as a family, some are combining a meal out with watching the game and, yes, some are here for a tear-up. It’s a good mix.
And when England take the lead, there is less of the pint-throwing, limbs-based ‘scenes’ that go viral on social media, but it’s no less joyous. And Boxpark Wembley is very, very happy at half-time.
8.49pm — Half-time. Bailey, North Walsham
“Look at Lauren!” is the reaction as Hemp sits free at the top of both the pitch in Sheffield and our screen. There is a desperation for her to be involved. She is known only as ‘Lauren’ here.
There is no need for the England supporters’ band either, although we have a group of youngsters making trumpet sounds at regular intervals. They are disconcertingly good at it. One of the boys wearing the same England shirts as the women on the television bellows: “Get stuck in there, love.” He looks about 10 years old.
The half-time whistle soon follows and there is a clubhouse exodus as everyone looks to have a quick kickabout on the pitch outside the door before the last of the sunlight disappears.
9.04pm — Walker, Sunderland
Two-nil, and after Bronze to Mead for the opener, it’s Mead to Bronze this time. You could say there’s a bit of local pride around the table.
The moment @LucyBronze made it two 👏pic.twitter.com/SmLekcJf4y
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 26, 2022
9.04pm — Bailey, North Walsham
If it was cheers for the first goal in here, it’s now screams for the second…
But then: “Oh no!” Not only is VAR checking the goal; it is Hemp’s heel that could cause it to be disallowed for offside. The clubhouse recoils, until the moment the referee gives the goal — news greeted by a relief-tinged round of applause and beaming smiles.
This England and Lauren story isn’t ending just yet. Surely?
9.04pm — Brown, dunno, it’s dark now… hopefully somewhere in Yorkshire at least
My watch vibrates again — 2-0. A slightly more exaggerated fist-pump this time as my ruse has been rumbled and I’m back in standard. No noise through the rest of the carriage.
9.12pm — Brown, 15 minutes outside York
Approaching civilisation, I’m now getting more than two bars of signal — I’ve had a solid-ish iPlayer connection for five whole minutes.
Within 60 seconds of being able to actually watch the game, White is off for Russo.
This is not only when I have signal, but when my fellow passengers realise I have signal.
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My hands go up to my head and I feel a sympathetic ‘Ooooooooh!’ leave my throat as Russo’s cross is slammed against the bar by Hemp.
Noise-cancelling headphones are a blessing most of the time. Not when you’re watching live sport in an enclosed space surrounded by strangers.
9.12pm — Bailey, North Walsham
The cry is excruciating. That was supposed to be the moment, but ‘Go on!’ turned into ‘No!’ with heads on hands throughout in perfect sync. Somehow, Hemp misses a sitter for 3-0 from a few yards. But she’s still called Lauren here, and her magic moment will just have to wait until the final at Wembley on Sunday.
9.23pm — Harpur, Bramall Lane
Russo has just scored an outrageous backheel for England’s third. Now Cox is impressed: “That is amazing!”.
“It’s coming home…” rings out around the stadium.
On repeat. Forever.
Absolutely amazing, @alessiarusso7 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9B9Mt2V9eq
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 27, 2022
9.23pm — Brown, five minutes outside York
Sod it. I’ve had two cans of beer and I’ve been on a rich variety of trains today for approaching eight hours now.
“Get in! C’mon!” Full-on both fists in the air now.
Then, “Be-HAAAVE!” as the replays show the audacity of Russo’s goal.
I won’t lie. I had dreamt of this moment. We passengers, briefly brothers and sisters in arms, together in this big tin can that’s trying to take us home…
Alas, reality bites as Steve, 52, who is on his way up to Sunderland, asks if I’m watching the football. I apologise, first and foremost, as is the English way, for being loud. Steve says it’s cool, and asks the score.
“Three-nil.”
“Ah, awesome. Cannot wait for Sunday now,” he replies.
Not just yet, Steve. Not just yet.
9.27pm — Walker, Sunderland
Neve Herron has relaxed and is now smiling. “Normally I’m the chatty one,” she says, “but I was on the edge of my seat earlier.”
Herron is one of Sunderland’s latest young Lionesses, just back from being in the Czech Republic with England Under-19s.
“This makes you believe that it’s possible,” Herron says. “The Women’s Euros have definitely pushed the game in the north east. Ten years ago, when I was a little girl, you might have had 10 girls at our session on the beach. Now we had over 50, I think.
“It shows what’s happening and it’s happening in our time.”
9.29pm — Bailey, North Walsham
Nathalie Bjorn picks up the first booking of the game for a foul on Stanway. This relatively unremarkable event provokes a frothing, impassioned response towards the screen here because this crowd have not forgotten that Bjorn should already be on a yellow card for a cynical pull-back in the first half – on Hemp, obviously.
9.32pm — Brown, The Duke of York pub, York
I’ve made it to York. I’ve missed my connection, but the station pub has the game on. No noise, but a few men and women are watching. The bar staff remark as I enter, “Bloody hell, it’s four-nil, now!”
IT'S FOUR! KIRBYYYYYYYYYY!! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/tgYW74imN8
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 26, 2022
There’s also a hen party in.
9.48pm — Full-time. Spiers, Boxpark Wembley
The party has well and truly started here. They’re singing, hugging strangers, spilling onto the stage and dancing like England are in the final of a major tournament.
“We absolutely smashed it,” Yankey says on the mic before re-enacting Russo’s flick and starting a mass chorus of, “It’s coming home…”.
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We saw similar scenes last summer as England’s men made the final of their Euros, but there are far more families and young kids here, experiencing something like this for perhaps the first time.
They’re spilling out onto Wembley Way now, singing Russo’s name. The party will go on long into the night.
9:48pm — Full-time. Brown, The Duke of York
That’s it, England are in the final. The two other people left watching offer gentle applause as the whistle goes.
The hens have ordered 15 Jagerbombs. I leave the pub as they belt out Going To The Chapel and make my way towards my sixth and final train of the day.
“I’m going home, I’m going home, I’m going…”
9:48pm — Full time. Bailey, North Walsham
Cheers, rapturous applause, an almost overly eager start to Sweet Caroline and the green glow of grass from the TV screen making up for the lack of daylight.
There is even a three-year-old girl toddling in to sample the atmosphere (with her mum!). Overlooking it all, screwed to the back of the room behind the bar is a framed 2020 England shirt, signed by North Walsham’s finest. Hemp simply wrote to her old club “Best wishes”.
The sentiment will now be sent right back at her from now until Sunday’s final.