Defending champions England advanced to a semi-final clash with Italy next Tuesday at the 2025 women's European Championships after a penalty shoot-out victory over Sweden.
Sweden tore through England's defences to race into a 2-0 lead within 25 minutes on Thursday night the Letzigrund Stadion in Zurich.
Veteran striker Kosovare Asllani profited from lackadaisical defending to open the scoring after two minutes.
As England tried to play the ball out from the back, a pass rebounded off Filippa Angeldahl and fell to Stina Blackstenius. She teed up Asllani to slot into the bottom left corner.
Blackstenius doubled the advantage to leave England reeling. And the damage would have been worse had goalkeeper Hannah Hampton not parried goal-bound efforts from Fridolina Rolfö and Blackstenius.
England head coach Sarina Wiegman brought on Chloe Kelly for Lauren Hemp 12 minutes from time and the Arsenal striker had an immediate impact.
She whipped in a cross from the left for Lucy Bronze to head in at the back post. Minutes later. Michelle Agyemang levelled to notch up her second goal for England on her third appearance.
Spot kicks missed
In a tense shoot-out, four players from each team missed their spot kicks before Bronze converted her effort and Smilla Holmberg blazed her penalty over the crossbar.
On Friday night in Berne, world champions Spain play hosts Switzerland.
"We are expecting a stadium packed with Swiss people, but this is motivating for us," said Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmati.
"‘It's a new challenge, we want to continue making history as we have been doing all these years, and we are really looking forward to being here in the final on the 23 July as well."
Spain are favourites to reach the semi-finals. They scored 14 goals in their three victories in the pool stages.
Switzerland, though, have blossomed during the event. After losing their opening game to Norway, they beat Iceland 2-0 before a late equaliser against Finland from Riola Xhemaili sent Switzerland into the knockout stages.
"We know what our strengths are," said Spain head coach coach Montse Tomé. "We know the team we are and the things we can still improve on.
"We have been working on it, we are still confident in our chances and, above all, what I feel is that the team is ready to compete."
