There were barely two minutes left to go of the semi-final when Craig Jones promised his daughter tickets to Basel on the off-chance England managed to turn around their seemingly inevitable 1-0 defeat to Italy. It was not a promise he thought he would need to keep.
Yet Michelle Agyemang’s equaliser in the 96th minute, followed by Chloe Kelly’s goal in extra time, meant Jones, 35, a man of his word, spent the rest of the evening hastily booking tickets and hotels for Leona, nine, and her best friend Sofia, ten.
He and his neighbour Jamie Smith, 48, split the 12-hour drive from Grimsby in a car plastered with England flags. The dads and daughters planned to be straight back on the road after the match on Sunday to make it home in time for work on Monday.
Presley Paterson, a Lotte Wubben-Moy superfan
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All worth it, according to the girls, both players for Grimsby Borough, who claimed they “never gave up hope” of seeing the Lionesses make it to the final. Leona explained that she loved watching the women’s team because they “could do things the men can’t”.
“They’re not always rolling around on the floor,” she said.
The families are among thousands of fans who made it to Basel through any means necessary where they celebrated England’s historic second Euros win, featuring one their now classic comebacks.
It was all optimism on Sunday morning. Sporting England cowboy and bucket hats, bandanas, flags, crop tops and football shirts, they piled onto the Swiss trams, informing fellow passengers that it was indeed “coming home”.
Among them was 16-year-old Imogen Bownes from Nottingham, who has been saving up for months through her part-time job as a waitress. “I paid for most of it except for the hotel,” she beamed.
Bownes travelled over with a group of fellow sixth formers she met through going to WSL games. Her friend, Alanna Modi, 17, said that she wanted to be at the final to “celebrate women’s sport and witness the impact again of England winning the Euros”.
“After the last Euros there was so much more support for grassroots girls’ teams and there’s more around than there used to be,” she said. “All my male friends now are pretty supportive, they enjoy it, they know some of the players.”
It is a world away from the one Jo Fox, 44, grew up in. “This is the stuff you dreamed of as a kid,” said the former Arsenal academy player. “What you see now, the crowd, the people, the spirit of the ladies’ game is amazing. I never imagined I’d see this in my lifetime.”
Some fans had ditched long-laid plans to make sure they were in the stands to cheer England on. One woman had arrived in Portugal this week with her wife and daughter but abandoned them to fly to Basel instead.
Teenagers travelled to Basel from Nottingham and London
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Presley Paterson, 11, was supposed to be playing a dancing giraffe in her Year Six play, but was only too happy to miss the last few days of primary school to travel around Switzerland, despite having rehearsed the part for weeks.
Meanwhile, her mother Jessica, 37, a head of year at a secondary school, told her new boss during a job interview in April that she would only accept the role if she could be guaranteed the time off. “I said, ‘Look, I’m going to the Euros on these dates. Otherwise I’m not taking the job, just so you know.’”
Presley said that she was “crying” during the quarter-finals when it looked like England were about to be knocked out by Sweden. “And then we scored and I started crying even more.”
A superfan of Lotte Wubben-Moy, Presley said that she had a few tips for Sarina Wiegman, the England manager, who had not played the Arsenal defender. If she has to, she warned, she will “march onto the pitch and talk to her”.
The fans did march, though not thankfully onto the pitch. A couple of hours before kick off, they paraded through the streets of Basel to St Jakob Park stadium, braving the changeable weather under ponchos, umbrellas and flags.
Jo Fox is a former Arsenal Academy player
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“You can shove your patatas bravas up your arse,” read one of the less family friendly signs. “The only good thing to come out of Spain is Love Island,” another woman had written.
One England fan was seen plastering any red-and-yellow clad supporters she could see with England stickers while shouting: “Vamos!”
The TikTok-famous Chelsea women’s and Lioness superfan Basil Goode also made an appearance. The 66-year-old, a social media sensation despite not owning a single account, said that it was a “miracle” he was still alive after following the Lionesses through their many ups and downs across the tournament. “I almost had a heart attack with all those penalties and extra time. But all those girls shone,” he said.
There was much debate as to whether the home conditions would favour the Lionesses over their Mediterranean rivals. In the end the heavy rain abated, but it was England who were crowned champions, becoming the first English senior team to defend a title.
Princess Charlotte and her father, Prince William, congratulated the Lionesses on Instagram
Princess Charlotte was one of the many young girls to have made the journey to witness their glory, watching from the stands next to her father Prince William, one of the Lionesses’s many well wishers. After the game they wrote: “What a game! @lionesses, you are the champions of Europe and we couldn’t be prouder of the whole team. Enjoy this moment @England. W & Charlotte”
Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria were also among the 34,000 fans in attendance. Before the final, the tournament had attracted a record 623,000 supporters in stadiums, while an estimated 16 million Britons were watching the final from home.
Ticketless English and Spanish fans mingled at the Mr Pickwick Pub in Basel’s city centre, many of them expats who came dressed head to toe in their national colours. Deborah Rulton, 50, from Essex, was inconsolable after Spain’s first goal in the 25th minute. “This is what we do, we’ll fight back,” her friend reassured her.
The mood improved considerably after Alessia Russo’s header in the second half and by the penalty shootout a large crowd of fans were watching the game on the city’s Barfüsserplatz, surrounded by flammkuchen and hotdog stands, shouting “we can’t hear you” whenever the opposite side missed.
The square erupted as Chloe Kelly smashed home the final goal. “That was very, very suspenseful — but amazing,” Georgina Dawson, 18, said. “This is going to catapult women’s football even further than it already has.”