As a nation who has suffered heartbreak after heartbreak on the international stage, Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses’ 2-1 victor over Germany and the creation of the many sheroes, as a result, after saw Chloe Kelly, for one, write her name into folklore after scoring the winner in the UEFA Euro 2022 final, bringing to an end 56 years of hurt by finally winning a major tournament.

 

Winning their first international trophy following the extra time win meant that the fairytale ending to England's summer was ‘complete’. With super-subs Ella Toone and Lina Magull coming off the bench to bring England level – after going behind twice – for Chloe Kelly to seal the win in extra time, a record-breaking 87,192 crowd at Wembley stadium would have felt privileged to witness history in the making – on more than one count.

Not only was it the women’s first ever trophy, or the Three Lion’s first ever finals victory since the World Cup in 1966, but for manager, Wiegman, she marked her only place in the history books – by being the first ever manager – man or woman – to take two different countries to the Euro summit. Her side redressed the balance, 13 years after 8-time winners Germany beat England in their last Euro final.

So impressive was the belief and character she has instilled into the players, who had fallen at the final hurdle on too many occasions before, she will now go into the country's history books for what is an unprecedented achievement. In 2017, when Holland was the then hosts, she led them all the way after beating Denmark in the final. The irony there was that they (Holland) beat England in the semi-finals.

“This result will go around the world,” Wiegman said after England’s win. Kelly too wrote her name into folklore by scoring the winning goal and bringing to an end 56 years of hurt by finally winning a major tournament.

After coming off the bench to score the 110th-minute winner, an emotional Kelly said: “It’s amazing. This is what dreams are made of. As a young girl watching women’s football – wow! This is unbelievable.”

“It’s the proudest moment of my life,” England captain Leah Williamson said. “I just couldn’t stop crying,” she said.

“It is the proudest moment of my life until the day I have kids I suppose. Every piece of advice was take every single second in so I can relive it forever. I’ll be reliving that for a long time.

Of the future of the women’s game, Williams went on: “This victory is just the start of a journey. The legacy of this tournament is the change in society.

“We’ve brought everybody together, we’ve got people at games – now we want them to come to the Women’s Super League – the legacy of this team will be the start of the journey.”