By Philip O'Connor ZURICH (Reuters) -England beat Sweden 3-2 in an astonishing penalty shootout that featured 14 attempts to reach the Women's Euros semi-finals on Thursday after the reigning champions had fought back from 2-0 down to force the game to extra time.

Sweden head coach Peter Gerhardsson has defended his decision to allow teenager Smilla Holmberg to take the decisive penalty in last night’s catastrophic shootout defeat against England. Sarina Wiegman ’s defending European champions staged an astonishing act of escapology to secure a semi-final against Italy next week.

England came back from a 2-0 deficit to take Sweden to penalties and seal their place in the Euro 2025 semifinals, but they did it by virtue of one of the strangest, and longest, penalty shootouts ever.