England 2-1 Italy AET: Lionesses produce STUNNING comeback to book place in European Championship final thanks to dramatic Chloe Kelly strike

She plays with socks around her ankles, stuffed into bright white boots, and for several years those who really know the secrets of England’s women’s football had been saying that Michelle Agyemang is different. She is the one.

Many more people are aware of that today. After another 90 minutes in which England had been leaden, predictable and, quite frankly, a crushing disappointment, Arsenal’s 19-year-old forward arrived and struck an equaliser which changed everything. England were so close to defeat, with one of the seven additional minutes to play, that the Italian bench had already started their celebrations.

It was not just the No 17’s goal – a shot dispatched with real power through a forest of legs – which changed England’s temperature and sent them into extra time. Agyemang, who was six and playing on the small-sided pitches of Brandon Groves FC in Essex when first spotted by Arsenal, played without fear, pressing, preying, waiting to pounce.

In the second half of the extra time which her goal secured, she raced through on Italy’s defence and struck the bar. A few moments later, a penalty for a stone wall foul on Beth Mead, converted on the rebound by Chloe Kelly, took England to the final.

And when the dust settles today, the question for Sarina Wiegman must be, with the greatest possible respect, ‘What the hell took you so long?’ As England laboured, desperate for a player just like Agyemang to go up against Italy’s Lucia Linari – brilliant and a pillar of strength all night – stood undemonstrative and implacable in the technical zone, arms folded behind her back. The 70th minute ticked past, the 75th minute and then the 80th.

It was almost as long a wait for Kelly, legendary heroine of the 2022 final. Her arrival, on 77 minutes, brought the most euphoric reaction heard from the large England contingent all night and new attacking intent. She seemed to demand the chance to take that penalty.

Though it means a final against the winners of the Spain/Germany clash which takes place in Zurich on Wednesday, England will need a vast improvement on this if their defence is not be torn to shreds in Bern on Sunday.

Briefly, none of this chaos seemed likely.

Against the serene backdrop of the mountain they call ‘the balcony of Geneva’, bathed in the setting sun, England arrived and briefly offered early traces of the football which illuminated the European tournament they won on home soil three years ago.

Lauren Hemp, such a shining light back in that golden summer, has been unfathomably invisible these past three weeks, struggling to make an impact and to dance into opposition areas as she once did. In the early stages she was in full flight, combining with Georgia Stanway to put the Italians back on their heels.

You imagined a night without anxiety right back then because it was clearly no elite outfit that Wiegman’s players were up against. A string of misplaced Italian passes under no pressure – three in the first 10 minutes – told us that this was a glorious opportunity to ease into the final. A semi-final which might make England’s 4-0 steamrollering of Sweden at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane three years ago look severely challenging by comparison.

But the bumpy road to this stage, full of setbacks and inconsistency, has taken a heavy toll on the defending champions and it was a tentative, uncertain, diffident England. The pace they put on the ball was poor. The numbers advancing in synchrony were too few. There were half chances – Alessia Russo spinning around a ball which dropped to her on the penalty shot and stabbing a low drive inches wide of the right post – but nothing more.

Italy, the poor relations, in flecked green shirts resembling bars of Palmolive soap, displayed more in the single attacking thrust which brought their opening goal just beyond the half hour than England had mustered from all their possession by then.

The goal owed a lot to a slick one-two between Martina Lenzini and Sofia Cantore, the rising star in Italian football, on the right flank which left Alex Greenwood too easily beaten, but most to England’s horrific defending. Esme Morgan, preferred to the struggling Jess Carter in the final reckoning, allowed that cross to pass her by and reach Bronze, where the calamity of errors continued.

The veteran full back, seemingly unaware of the 34-year Barbara Bonansea on her shoulder, neither cleared the ball nor closed down the Italian midfielder, who was free to launch the ball into the top of England’s net.

The Italians’ delirious substitutes fanned out across the pitch and players flew to their manager Andrea Soncin. ‘They’re not unbeatable,’ he’d said earlier this week of an England side whose desperate lack of a left back had been exposed again by the failings of Greenwood, a utility player filling in back there. The message to England in that goal was that football can be – needs to be – free and expressive.

Their prospects were not enhanced when James, their outstanding player, did not materialise for the second half, instead emerging with an ice pack on her foot. There was otherwise nothing different about England. Nothing unexpectedly dynamic from Wiegman. For a long time, no second striker to help the isolated Russo. Slightly more intensity.

A delivery by Ella Toone, otherwise struggling to make an impression, which Lauren Hemp opted to head onto towards goal instead of finding unmarked Russo. But nothing to alleviate the general torture. Just crosses sailing into the middle which Italy’s defence managed with ease.

And then those two substitutes stepped up and did their thing. Agyemang, who must start on Sunday, lurked at the back of Italy’s box, waiting for a Hemp cross to reach her before seizing her moment of history. Kelly wheeled away to the England fans after her converted penalty, reminding us of those glories of three years ago. Somehow, the flame still burns.