After an emotional, erratic 10 minutes for Lionesses captain Leah Williamson, which saw her bawling her eyes out down the Mall, she uttered the words every English football fan wanted to hear: ‘Stay with us – this story is not done yet.’
England celebrated their second European crown in style on Tuesday afternoon with an open-top bus parade that delivered them to the gates of Buckingham Palace, drawing a 65,000-strong crowd.
It was a marked upgrade on the Trafalgar Square celebrations following their 2022 triumph, which was hastily assembled and capped at 7,000.
This time, the event was planned in advance and emphatically dispelled defender Esme Morgan’s concerns that there would not be enough people to fill the space. A choked-up Williamson told the crowd: ‘I’m in the trenches, I am holding back tears. I have been crying all the way down the Mall, this is unbelievable.’
Then the 28-year-old Arsenal defender added, with a nod to the upcoming World Cup in Brazil in 2027: ‘Stay with us – this story is not done yet.’ Lucy Bronze, who defied logic by playing the tournament with a fractured tibia, was asked by former England international Alex Scott whether she planned to hang up her boots.
The defender replied simply: ‘Not yet!’
An emotional Leah Williamson told Lionesses fans that ‘this story is not done yet’
The Lionesses’ Euro 2025 victory parade near Buckingham Palace was a joy to behold
A huge crowd packed onto The Mall to watch as the Lionesses arrived at Buckingham Palace
