Chloe Kelly: How happiness and “positive clique” saved England’s Euro 2025 campaign

Kelly is one of England’s “finishers” alongside regular subs like Beth Mead, Aggie Beever-Jones and Michelle Agyemang. She told a news conference at Euro 2025 that they have formed a “positive clique”, with their own finger clicking celebration.

She says Maya le Tissier – who has not played a single minute in Switzerland – came up with the idea.

“We work really hard on the training pitch, in the gym, making sure we’re prepared when we go on to the pitch and we have a great group of girls, so it’s about enjoying the whole experience as a group,” Kelly said.

“We’re good people that support each other every day. We support each other very well as a 23, that’s what it takes to win a tournament. In football sometimes cliques are negative, but this is a positive clique.”

“No matter how bad England were in that first half, you always know England have got goalscorers in that side,” former Lionesses keeper Siobhan Chamberlain told 5 Live. “You know if they get their moment, England can get back into the game.”

All that positivity gave Kelly the confidence to turn the quarter-final around, right down to her penalty in that bizarre shootout. As all around lost their heads, she kept hers with a trademark hop, skip and a jump in her run-up to score.

Kelly might not start for England, but she is Mrs Reliable in shootouts. She scored the winning penalty versus Nigeria at the 2023 World Cup and Brazil in the Finalissima.

She is happy, unbothered, and empowered to save her country, and more importantly her team-mates, whenever they need her.

“I didn’t feel under pressure, I just wanted to create some goals for the girls and do my best,” she told BBC Sport after the Sweden win.

“I think there are times against a top team where you are struggling a little bit, I think that’s football. It’s about sticking together in those moments; it’s riding the storm together and knowing we’ve got resilient moments and can bounce back from anything.”