Sweden legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent a message of encouragement to Smilla Holmberg after the 18-year-old missed the decisive spot-kick in Thursday’s penalty-shootout defeat by England.
Holmberg skied over the bar from 12 yards to hand the Lionesses victory in what was dubbed the ‘worst penalty shootout ever’ by multiple fans.
With the Women’s Euros quarter-final having ended in a 2-2 draw after extra time, England won 3-2 on penalties after each team had taken seven kicks.
Alessia Russo, Julia Zigiotti Olme, Nathalie Bjorn, Chloe Kelly and Lucy Bronze were the only players to successfully convert from the spot in a chaotic shootout featuring nine misses – including one from Sweden goalkeeper Jennifer Falk, who had saved three penalties before blasting her own over the crossbar.
Holmberg’s miss proved decisive and the teenager was left in tears, but she received an unexpected boost the following morning in the form of a personal message from Sweden’s greatest male footballer.
‘It was a sad daughter I held in my arms about an hour after the game,’ Holmberg’s father, Ola Persson, told Swedish radio. ‘She is strong and she has received a lot of support from both the team, supporters, friends and relatives. She even got a text message from Zlatan here this morning.’
Smilla Holmberg missed her penalty kick as Sweden lost to England at the Women’s Euros
Teenager Holmberg was visibly upset and was pictured in tears following the penalty shootout
Sweden legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent a message of encouragement to 18-year-old Holmberg
Ibrahimovic, who is part-owner of Holmberg’s club Hammarby and scored 62 goals in 122 caps for Sweden’s men’s team, encouraged the young defender to take the next penalty, and the next one after that – urging her to believe in herself and to grow from the experience.
‘The most important thing is that no-one defines a career by those misses,’ Persson added. ‘In fact, it’s the opposite – you have to grow in those situations.’
Holmberg had stepped up after misses from team-mate Filippa Angeldahl and England trio Lauren James, Beth Mead and Alex Greenwood, among others. She needed to score to force an eighth round of penalties, but her effort sailed over the bar.
England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, who saved two spot-kicks and finished the match with a bloodied face after a collision earlier in the quarter-final, admitted the shootout was ‘stressful’ for all involved.
‘Every time I saved one I was thinking, ‘please just put it in so we have a bit of a cushion,’ she told the BBC. ‘Then their keeper saved the next one and I was thinking, “oh goodness, here we go.”‘
England had looked dead and buried after falling 2-0 behind to first-half goals from Kosovare Asllani and Stina Blackstenius, but mounted a dramatic late comeback with goals in the 79th and 81st minutes from Bronze and teenage substitute Michelle Agyemang.
The victory sent Sarina Wiegman’s side into a fourth semi-final in five tournaments – and made them the first reigning champions since Germany in 2009 to reach the final four of the following Euros. England will face Italy in Geneva on Tuesday.
