Sawt Falasteen - England's Wiegman hails 'one of a kind' Bronze after Euros shootout triumph

England were trailing by two goals and looked to be heading out of the tournament with 11 minutes remaining before Bronze halved the deficit by heading home Chloe Kelly's cross.

And after Michelle Agyemang fired home the leveller, Bronze stepped up to smash in what turned out to be the winning penalty of an eventful shootout won 3-2 by England.

"Lucy Bronze is just one of a kind. I have never, ever seen this before in my life. And I'm a very lucky person that I've worked with so many incredible people, incredible football players. And there are so, so many," England boss Wiegman told reporters.

"But what she does, and her mentality... and that penalty, the goal also, far post, she gets it in the net. But that's not what defines her, what defines her is that resilience, that fight. I think the only way to get her off the pitch is in the wheelchair."

Dogged Chelsea star Bronze, 33, has been a key part of England's rise to be reigning European champions and World Cup finalists, and taped up her own leg after suffering an injury late in extra time, before ripping it off to take her spot-kick.

"I just felt a little bit tight at the end of the game and I thought, I just need to get through to make sure I can keep going," Bronze told reporters.

"But I thought it's going to hinder me in a penalty. So then, yeah, I didn't expect it to go to the sixth penalty, so I didn't take it off and then it was my penalty. I thought, I need to take this off so I can absolutely smack it."

Italy stand in England's way of reaching the final later this month after a win which for long periods of the game, and even during the shootout, looked nearly impossible.

"It wasn't beautiful football, but I think that what I was trying to get at yesterday is that we had to go out and win in a different kind of way," added Bronze.

"Tonight was what, with me and my mum, we used to talk about proper England. It wasn't beautiful, but it got us through."

P.Tamimi--SF-PST