Lionesses- Harry Hampton

Oldie but a goldie

Harry had decided that for the semis he would wear his Stanway shirt. He'd double checked with Hannah that was okay and she had reassured him that he could wear whatever shirt he wanted.

The build up to kick off was tense. Sweden were good. Very good.

Pride swelled through him as he loudly sang the national anthem; everybody else in the stadium doing the same.

His Grandad was stood on one side of him, his Mum on the other.

In the 8th minute, Sweden had a corner that ended up with the ball hitting the cross bar. It was close. Too close.

26 minutes later, Lucy crossed the ball into the Swedish box. Beth took a good touch and then powered it home.

Joy ran through Harry's blood stream. One nil. One fucking nil!

At half time, he checked his phone and was pleased to see a message from Sam. He'd missed him over the past month and couldn't wait to see him when the tournament ended.

Barely two minutes after the restart, Beth whipped in a corner and Lucy got her head to it. It bounced through all the Sweden defence and passed the goalie. With a loud roar, they all celebrated. Harry bounced up and down: this was perfect.

20 minutes later, a good bit of play by England allowed Less to have a shot on goal. Surely, she would score now. She hit it straight at the keeper and everyone in the stadium groaned.

They didn't stay disappointed for long for at that moment, Less did the unthinkable.

She backheeled it and it went through the goalies' legs before billowing in the back of the net.

Holy shit! Only Less would dare do that in the semi finals of the biggest tournament of her life.

The stadium was an absolute scene. That was the only way to describe it. Everyone was jumping up and down and screaming like mad.

At that moment it was over for Sweden. The final touch was when, in the 75th minute, Fran chipped the keeper. Lindahl managed to get a hand to it but it had so much power that it reached the goal.

When the final whistle went, the scenes were mad. Everyone was shouting and singing together. They'd done it. They were in the final. At Wembley.

Harry ran down to the side of the pitch and tightly embraced his sister. He was so proud.

"I love you," he said, gripping her tightly.

"I love you too," Hannah told him, soaking it all in.

They stayed for ages, singing, dancing and celebrating. The whole of England together.

***

"I'm going to miss this," Harry said the night after the semi final as he G, Tooney and Less all played FIFA together. Tonight was their last night of staying up late as all their energy was now focused on the final.

"Me too," Less agreed.

"I've loved this tournament more than anything else. And spending the evenings with you guys has been so much," Ella said. They all looked to Georgia to see what she had to say about the experience.

"Soft gits the lot of ya," she laughed, jokingly. She'd loved the experience just as much as the others had.

That evening was unlike anything else. It was so peaceful yet so loud. So chaotic yet so fun.

The four of them laughed nonstop, teasing each other and joking round.

"God I just love you all," Less said as they parted ways. And that was the perfect sentence to sum it all up.