England skipper Leah Williamson hailed the extra satisfaction from a comeback win after the Lionesses edged past Spain 2-1 to set up a mouth-watering semi-final on Tuesday.
The hosts went behind thanks to Esther González’s second-half opener, before Ella Toone and Georgia Stanway hit back to send England through.
And while the Lionesses have enjoyed huge victories, including an 8-0 demolition of Norway, Williamson said the victory over Spain felt the best so far.
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“You want to win every game, and to win it convincingly is great but when you come back from something like that the emotion at the end is unreal,” Williamson told the England YouTube channel.
“That always feels so much better at the time because you’ve had to work so much harder for it. It had everything, didn’t it? We went down, came back, a lot of fight, a lot of heart and in the end all good.
“I feel like we were a lot less stressed than everyone watching.”
England had looked to be exiting Euro 2022 as Spain led with six minutes remaining before Toone volleyed home an Alessia Russo knock down.
Stanway’s extra-time winner was enough to send England through, but midfielder Keira Walsh admitted they came up against one of the world’s very best sides.
“They [Spain] are unreal, there’s no other way to put it,” said Walsh, who was pivotal to England’s victory in central midfield.
“The way they move the ball, they are incredible and we knew that from the start they were going to have a lot of possession. We just had to stay concentrated and wait for our moment to come.”
“You have to accept that they’re going to have the ball, they’re going to do their thing with it and then you just have to be ready to take your chances,” added Williamson.
Stanway’s outstanding long-range effort sparked jubilant scenes in the crowd in Brighton and sent an already electric atmosphere into overdrive. And captain Williamson was full of praise for the levels of support her side have received this summer.
"The atmosphere first time around [against Norway] was probably the best that we’ve had and then again going back we were excited about that,” said Williamson.
“It was a crazy game but they stuck with us the whole time and I didn’t see a Mexican wave yesterday which means everybody was really enjoying the game.”
Tickets are on sale now for fans to experience a history-making tournament that aims to unite football and communities and amplify the growth of the women’s game. www.uefa.com/womenseuro/ticketing
