Hannah Hampton has praised England for showcasing “grit” and “English blood” to defend their UEFA Women’s Euro title.
Chloe Kelly’s winning penalty saw England defeat Spain 3-1 in a penalty shootout to retain the title after she had set up Alessia Russo’s equaliser which cancelled out Mariona Caldentey’s header in a comeback 1-1 draw in Basel, Switzerland.
In the shootout, Hampton denied Caldentey, Aitana Bonmati and Salma Paralluelo after Patricia Guijarro had put Spain ahead after the first round of spot kicks, with the 24-year-old describing the victory as “unbelievable, incredible,” as the Lionesses came from behind in all three knockout matches.
“We’ve shown during this tournament that we can come back when we go a goal down, we have that grit, we’ve got English blood in us.
“We never say die and we just keep going and we did that today.”
This was Hampton’s first major tournament as the Lionesses’ first-choice goalkeeper after she had previously been a back-up to now-retired Mary Earps, alongside Ellie Roebuck who wasn’t part of the squad due to a lack of game time in last two seasons as she recovered from an infarct on her occipital lobe.
Hampton also acknowledged manager, Sarina Wiegman for her motivational speech to inspire the Lionesses to resiliently dig in for the draw and eventual victory.
“This is England, this is our moment,” explained Hampton on what Wiegman said to the squad to motivate them through a tense final.
“We’ve dug in for the 120 minutes, we’ve done what we needed to do to keep Spain.”
“It was just one kick, that was it.”
Hampton lost track of the score line in the shootout and mimed a kicking motion to enquire about whether they win if Kelly dispatched her kick.
“When Chloe stepped up, I was miming a kicking motion and said, ‘if she scores, do we win?’” reflected Hampton on her emotions ahead of the final penalty.
“I had completely lost track of what was going on.
“They kept cheering at me and yelling at me and I didn’t know what the answer was but as soon as she ran off, I thought that’s it, ‘we’ve won’. I can’t believe it, I don’t think this is going to sink in for a while.”
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