If it had been easy, she “wouldn’t be here”, she had said. The way Kelly describes it, she played “street football without rules”, her brothers smashing into her in the cage, playing until the darkness fell. Kelly celebrates her winner for England in the final. A corner from the right was headed back by Lucy Bronze, immense all night, and dropped by the German goalline.
There is always an alternative ending, though, and with 110 minutes on the clock, an ugly goal and the most beautiful moment. Some stories seem to be writing themselves. Tension clung to this place, a shootout looming. Germany had got the better of the second half and deservedly got a superbly worked equaliser from Lina Magull that took this to extra time. Which was just one of the reasons why this was not done yet. Her shot, impeccably executed, rose into the air, the ball dropping slowly almost serenely into the net, watched all the way – in Beth Mead’s case from the corner flag, as she made her way to the bench having been forced off injured. Time to think, to wonder, perhaps at some subconscious level to be aware of all this signified. The beauty was in the simplicity, a lovely first time ball from Keira Walsh sending her through, time seeming to slow. Which served to make this feel like even more of a liberation.Įngland had taken the lead with a gloriously taken goal from Ella Toone an hour into an exhausting, sometimes confrontational match that had always been on a knife edge. And, that was Italy: this was Germany, for goodness sake. A year ago, in this same arena, England’s men had led a European Championship final and lost it on penalties. And, yes, quite probably the cruelty, too. There were 10 minutes to go in extra time when she scored, but that number had started to feel largely irrelevant, like penalties were inevitable now, everyone just waiting for it: the drama, the tension. A first ever trophy for England’s women was within touching distance, 56 years and one day after the only trophy any England team had ever won. They never will now it will always be there. Her teammates piled in, chasing her, grabbing her, not wanting to let go of this moment.