England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton revealed that she threw penalty notes belonging to her Spanish counterpart, Cata Coll, into the crowd during the European Championship final-deciding shoot-out.
The 24-year-old explained in an interview with TalkSport that she discarded the water bottle which belonged to Spain goalkeeper Coll, and contained notes detailing penalty statistics, into the contingent of English fans, while instead writing her own notes upon her arm to ensure Coll could not do similarly.
“The Spanish keeper had it (penalty notes) on her bottle,” Hampton said. “So I thought when she was going in goal I’ll just pick it up and chuck it into the English fans so she can’t have it.”
She added: “I never put it on a bottle because anyone can do that, so I put it on my arm.
Hampton saved two spot-kicks while Salma Paralluelo fired her penalty wide as England defended their European title with a 3-1 victory over world champions Spain in the shoot-out. The game had finished 1-1 after goals from Alessia Russo and Spain’s Mariona Caldentey.
“It wasn’t hard, when she’s gone in the goal it’s on its own isn’t it? You just pick it up,” the England international said. “When she saw my bottle in there instead, mine’s blank but it has the same sponsors and stuff so I just put mine in there, chucked hers in with the fans and she had an empty bottle.
“She was walking back and I was walking the other way and she was so confused, I was trying so hard not to burst out laughing.”
The Chelsea goalkeeper had played a pivotal role in keeping England in the tournament just ten days earlier, saving twice in the 3-2 penalty shoot-out quarter-final win over Sweden despite Sarina Wiegman’s side missing four of their kicks.
Hampton described that shoot-out as “traumatic” for the England squad, and explained how head coach Wiegman stepped up her team’s penalty preparations for the final two rounds of the tournament in Switzerland.
“From then on Sarina was saying ‘you’re taking penalties every day whether you like it or not’,” Hampton said.
“We were (doing so) before in the small-sided games, we’d have a penalty for each at the start of the games but afterwards it was about taking two or three then after training, Anna (Moorhouse) and Khiara (Keating) faced about 100 penalties a day.”
Hampton was one of five England players listed in the 30-player shortlist for the Women’s Ballon d’Or on Thursday, and emerged as Wiegman’s No 1 following the international retirement of Mary Earps in May.
(Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)