Jill Scott dedicated England’s historic Euro 2022 triumph to all previous Lionesses.
Substitute Chloe Kelly’s extra-time winner fired the hosts to a dramatic 2-1 win over Germany and sent a raucous, record Wembley crowd of 87,192 into delirium.
Ella Toone had earlier come off the bench to score England’s opener in normal time, only for Germany’s Lina Magull to level in the 79th minute and tee up a nervy finale at Wembley.
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But Kelly’s close-range winner proved decisive to hand England a first victory in a major international tournament since the men's famous World Cup triumph of 1966.
And veteran midfielder Scott, who featured back at Euro 2009 when England lost to the same opponents in the final, hailed all the Lionesses that had come before for the part they had played in the historic victory.
She said: “I can’t even put it into words. I’ve just been saying in the changing room that I just actually can’t believe we’ve won the Euros.
“Obviously, it’s been a long process for everybody. I said in the press before this game that we wanted to do this for everybody.
“This is for women’s football in England – everybody that has taken time out to put football on the map.
“It was great that I could see [former England international] Fara Williams after the game and I put [my medal] round her neck and said, ‘look, this is yours as much as it is mine’.
“I hope that all the girls that have ever put this shirt on realise that they’ve contributed towards this and I suppose we’re just the lucky ones that have [achieved] that end goal.”
The victory over eight-time champions Germany was enjoyed by a peak BBC television audience of 17.4 million, making it the most watched women’s football game in UK history.
Meanwhile, Scott became a viral sensation after the BBC cameras caught her furiously cursing at Germany and Bayern Munich's Sydney Lohmann after a clash between the pair.
The 35-year-old is the most experienced player in the England squad and the only player to have played in the Lionesses’ 6-2 final defeat against Germany in 2009.
Speaking on the significance of yesterday’s win for the wider women’s game, Scott said: “I think it’s massive. We always said that we didn’t want the interest around tournaments to just die off because in the past it has done.
“I suppose that when you’ve got [a medal] it might be a different story, but I hope that everyone just enjoyed the game, loved the passion the girls showed, loved the technical ability that was on show and realised that it’s just football at the end of the day.
“Hopefully, we can move forward with that – no more of these comparisons between women’s football and men’s football. Look, we’ve won as an England team and it’s for all family, friends and everybody involved in football.”
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