England Lioness says 'I was relieved' when white players missed during penalty shootout

England Lioness Jess Carter has admitted she was "relieved" when some of her white team-mates missed their spot kicks in her country's Euro 2025 quarter-final victory over Sweden last month because it may have saved Lauren James from being subjected to racist abuse. The shootout ultimately saw nine players miss their penalties as England clinched victory before going on to defeat Spain in the final.

England played out a 2-2 draw with Sweden at the Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich as Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agyemang both scored in the final 11 minutes of normal time to cancel out first half strikes from Kosovare Asllani and Stina Blackstenius. The match went to extra time, before eventually being settled in a penalty shootout.

James stepped up to take the Lionesses second spot kick after England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton had saved Filippa Angeldahl's effort. But James saw her shot palmed away by Sweden keeper Jennifer Falk.

Beth Mead, Alex Greenwood and Grace Clinton then saw their efforts saved, with Falk proving to be in inspired form in between the posts despite missing from 12 yards when presented with the opportunity to score the winner in the shootout when she stepped up to take Sweden's fifth penalty.

Bronze ultimately lashed England's seventh penalty into the roof of the net to put her country 3-2 ahead in the shootout. And when Smilla Holmberg blazed Sweden's seventh spot kick over the crossbar, England secured their place in the semi-finals, where they overcame Italy.

Discussing the penalty shootout during an interview with ITV News, Carter explained: "It's horrible to say, but it's almost like a sigh of relief when other players that weren't black missed a penalty, because the racism that would have come with LJ (Lauren James) being the only one that missed would have been astronomical.

"It's not because we want them to fail... it's about knowing how it's going to be for us (England's black players) if we miss."

Carter was the subject of racist abuse during Euro 2025 and stopped using social media in Switzerland as a result.

The Lionesses then decided not to take a knee ahead of their semi-final showdown with Italy, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino stating he was "deeply saddened" by the abuse.

And Carter added: "It makes you feel really small. It makes you feel like you're not important, that you're not valuable.

"It makes you second guess everything that you do - it's not a nice place to be. It doesn't make me feel confident going back onto the pitch. My family was so devastated by it as well and so sad.

"They obviously want to be there to support me being away in Switzerland, but they weren't able to be there the whole time. And I think that how it impacts the people around you sometimes is even worse than how it impacts you.

"The messages started going from 'she's not good enough' or 'shouldn't be playing for England', or 'should be ashamed of her performance' or whatever, and then it started being about, the reason I was rubbish was because I was black.

"I'm not going to go into detail but it was violently aggressive racism from the minute I stepped on a pitch from the France game."