GENEVA (AP) — Tears, distress and disbelief.
Italy captain Cristiana Girelli and defender Lucia Di Guglielmo cried as they walked around the field after an emotional semifinal loss — 2-1 after extra time to England on Tuesday — each with one arm around the other’s waist.
They waved goodbye to fans and their shared Women’s European Championship title hopes inside Stade de Genève, which had been a joyous second home for them in Switzerland.
Less than hour earlier, Italy had been little more than one minute away from advancing to a final few had imagined.
“I feel that something has ended that we didn’t want to end, because I still don’t believe it’s over,” the 35-year-old Girelli said, in tears again in the player interview area. “Probably fate has been a little cruel to us.”
Goalkeeper’s grief
Goalkeeper Laura Guilani had been alone with her emotions after fulltime, face down on the turf in midfield.
It would have been Italy’s first trip to the Women’s Euros title match since 1997. No Italian team had won a knockout game at the tournament in 28 years until Girelli’s 90th-minute winning goal against Norway last Wednesday in the same stadium.
In a heartbreaking end to the semis for Italy, England teenager Michelle Agyemang first took victory away with a game-tying goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time at the end of the regulation.
Then, just as a penalty shootout loomed, England clinched the victory with Chloe Kelly’s goal in the 119th to send the defending champion to Sunday’s final.
Adding to Italy’s sense of unfairness, Kelly scored by swooping on a rebound after Guiliani had saved her penalty kick.
Minute details
“We were one minute away from the final,” Italy coach Andrea Soncin said at a post-game news conference.
“The players have deserved a different end, but unfortunately it happens sometimes you don’t get what you deserve,” he said in translated comments.
The Italian team was ecstatic in the 33rd when Barbara Bonansea lashed a volleyed shot rising into the England net. For the fifth straight game Italy scored first, adding England to that list of opponents that includes World Cup champion Spain.
Bonansea ran toward the Italy bench with her tongue sticking out, with a broad smile, to be embraced by her teammates.
The team’s emotions were evident and powerful even before kickoff. The national anthem had been sung with gusto, concluding with a yelled crescendo that had some players bent over with the effort.
Protecting their lead from England attacks in the second half, center backs Elena Linari and Cecilia Salvai were defiant and Di Guglielmo had made a key header by the goalpost to clear imminent danger.
Di Guglielmo’s emotional post-game walk to salute Italy supporters was made wearing the jersey of their nemesis — Kelly’s No. 18 — they had exchanged after the game.
World Cup next
Soncin acknowledged women’s soccer in Italy was playing catch-up to nations which had more established programs, like England. “It’s another step we have to make to better manage these situations.”
In two years there will be a World Cup in Brazil where Italy, if it qualifies, will have a reputation and new-found respect to defend. With Girelli also?
“We achieved something great, something stratospheric, but we’ll see,” the storied veteran said of her chances of playing on until then. “These emotions are too beautiful to not want to relive them.”
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Associated Press writer Felipe Rocha contributed to this report
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
