France, July 18 -- Defending champions England advanced to a semi-final clash with Italy next Tuesday at the 2025 women's European Championships after a penalty shoot-out victory over Sweden.

Sweden tore through England's defences to race into a 2-0 lead within 25 minutes on Thursday night theLetzigrund Stadion in Zurich.

Veteran striker Kosovare Asllani profited from lackadaisical defending to open the scoring after two minutes.

As England tried to play the ball out from the back, a pass rebounded off Filippa Angeldahl and fell to Stina Blackstenius. Sheteed up Asllani to slot into the bottom left corner.

Blackstenius doubled the advantage to leave England reeling. And the damage would have been worse had goalkeeper Hannah Hampton no...