From Chloe Kelly’s second attempts to Michelle Agyemang’s on pitch prayers, the women’s Euro 2025 championships has been full of great sporting moments, metaphors and lessons in life and faith
Everyone seems too polite to mention it in the excitement of congratulations, but England striker Chloe Kelly has a habit of scoring vital goals on the second attempt. Look at her winner - also in extra time - at the Euro 2022 final at Wembley. A well worked corner was knocked down at the far post and fell to Kelly on the goal line. She took a swing at it – and completely missed. The ball then rebounded off the German goalie’s shin and Kelly poked it in. Cue wild, shirt-swirling rapture.
In this week’s Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy, Kelly stepped up to take a penalty in the dying seconds of extra time. It was a weak shot, if we’re being honest, but it bounced back sweetly from the goalkeeper’s save, allowing Kelly to coolly slot it in. Cue stately reception of fan adoration at the corner post.
Keep on keeping on
Kelly is a wonderful hero of women’s sport. It’s true that her nation’s collective blood pressure would be much improved if she’d scored these winners at the first swipe, but, hey, we’ll take it. Far better to triumph after making a mess of it than give up for doing so.
Such fridge-magnet philosophy is the stuff of sporting metaphor. It’s what makes it all so emotionally engaging – prevailing through adversity, giving your all, leaving everything out there on the pitch. It’s also why so many retired sportspeople make great inspirational speakers, leadership coaches and team-building specialists.
If we miss first time, it’s always worth having another go
But there’s another way of looking at it. Our belief systems are said to inform how we perform in life. That’s why some football players cross themselves as they take to the pitch. They’re praying that their God goes with them, inspires their performance and protects them in competition.
Kelly’s team-mate, Michelle Agyemang, is another miracle England sub. She is an active member of Ballers In God (BiG), the pro-on-pro discipleship group founded by footballer John Bostock. Agyemang wears BiG cross-embossed socks on pitch – a visible sign of her faith on the field.
Doubt and faith
Conversely, there’s a case for suggesting that how we perform in life informs and illuminates our faith - or what we believe to be true. It’s a case of life imitating art, if you like. Back to the Lionesses. Whether players of faith or not, their ascent through Euro 2025 has been a tough act of faith.
They lost their opening group game 2-1 to France. They came back from two goals down in their quarter-final to beat Sweden (just) on penalties. Their semi-final against Italy needed a last-gasp equaliser from Agyemang and a (frankly lucky) penalty conversion from Kelly in the butt-end of extra time.
They have only just hung in there. Doubt and faith have been fierce partners in the struggle. Clichés about never giving up have abounded. They’ve taken as much out of their faith – in themselves, in each other, for some of them in God – as their faith has taken out of them. By which I mean that their story tells us as much about what they and we believe, as the other way around.
The triumph of hope
Take never giving up, or the rather cumbersome, commonplace axiom that it’s never over until it’s over. As a rule for life, it is rich in implication. Among many other things, it might inform our attitude to end-of-life, palliative care. There is no moment before death (the final whistle, as it were) that isn’t fully alive.
Then there’s the triumph of hope. This isn’t simple optimism that something will turn up. It’s a defiance of despair, the idea that defeat need only be temporary and can be overcome, indeed turned around; that joy is always just around the corner. That’s why hope can be sure and certain (see Hebrews 6:19).
This column may have a short shelf-life, written as it is ahead of Sunday’s Euro 2025 final against Spain. But, ultimately, what I’ve written above means that, win or lose, it really doesn’t matter. Faith, hope and, yes, love will endure (see 1 Corinthians 13:13). This too shall pass.
As for Kelly, her winners demonstrate that if we miss first time, it’s always worth having another go. A bit like forgiveness – we can’t always get it right, but that’s no reason not to follow up with another go. Or 70 times seven goes (as Matthew 18:22 puts it).
Like Lionesses, we’ll get there in the end, and the pain will be worth it.
We go again, as they say.
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