Russ Crawford: Great Britain claims Women’s Euro Flag title in dramatic overtime victory

In a dramatic overtime finish that saw both teams score touchdowns but only one convert successfully, Great Britain captured the women’s IFAF Euro Flag 2025 championship with a 34-33 victory over Austria after regulation ended in a 27-27 tie. The championship game came down to a decisive two-point conversion attempt from the 10-yard line, which Great Britain’s defense successfully batted away to secure the continental title and avenge their loss to the same Austrian squad in this year’s World Games in China.

Overtime heroics secure championship
Tied 27-27 at the end of regulation, the gold medal final came down to extra point tries. In overtime, each team starts from midfield and has four tries to score. After two misses, GB QB Jessica Allen found WR Marta Matthews who made a leaping grab to place the ball at the 1-yard line. Allen then found Emily Kemp, one of her favorite receivers, for the touchdown. Great Britain chose to go for the one-point conversion, and Allen hit WR Grace Conway for the successful conversion, and Great Britain led 34-27.

Then it was Austria’s turn. Austria’s QB Saskia Stribrny only needed three passes, to Katrin Mansbart, Franziska Tabitha Sottner, and then Magdalena Helm took the ball in for the touchdown. Austria decided to go for the winning 2-point conversion from the 10-yard line, but GB’s Matthews batted the ball away, which sealed the win for Great Britain.

MVP performance leads to championship
Kemp, who IFAF named the tournament Most Valuable Player, remarked that after Great Britain had lost to the Austrians in the World Games in China, they had made it a focus to not let that happen again. Kemp was in such a zone that she could not recall that she had made the final touchdown catch, but she had played in that zone the entire tournament.

Road to the championship game
Great Britain made it to the finals by squeaking by previously undefeated France 27-21. The Austrians knocked off Spain 42-25 to reach the championship.

Spain edges France in bronze medal game
That set up a third-place match between Spain and France. The Spaniards outlasted the French 41-40. The French were able to score, but their defense had no answer for the Spanish offense. Spanish captain Violeta Alexandra Wiksten Oliver, the center who caught 14 passes for 4 touchdowns during the game, including the go-ahead score, remarked that she knew that “this would be my game. I just needed to catch the first ball and that was that.” On her French opponents, she said that “They have developed a great team. They have grown a lot since we last crossed in the world championship, but we knew that when we are focusing – we have our mind on the game – they cannot stop our offense.”

In other games, Ireland won is second game of the tournament, beating Norway 41-0, Switzerland won both of their games, getting by Turkiye 28-21, and Czechia 42-27, to finish 6 and 1 in the tournament, but still finished outside of qualifying for the World Championship in Düsseldorf next year. Swiss QB Anna Laura John realized that “We lost the wrong game” (to Slovenia 51-13 on the first day). “If we would have lost against Austria and won against Slovenia, it would have been better, because we would have qualified for the quarterfinals.” Still, she wouldn’t have changed it in the end.

Tournament success and future growth
IFAF President Pierre Trochet would not have changed anything either.

“I think we have had the best European Championship we ever had in terms of toughness of the games and competitiveness. We had packed stadiums at the end. Great highlights. Two great champions, so it’s only super positive.”

He looked ahead to the final continental championship in Ningbo, China, and then to the World Championship in Germany, which he felt would be “a highlight machine.” On the state of the game, he said:

“We now have a major championship on each continent, in just a few years. That’s a strong testament of the growth of flag football.”