Hannah Hampton admits throwing Spain counterpart’s water bottle into crowd

England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton has revealed how she threw the water bottle of Spanish rival Cata Coll into the stands – ditching its tactical notes – as the Lionesses went on to complete a dramatic penalty shoot-out win in the European Championship final.

Chelsea stopper Hampton had England’s own insider information written on a piece of paper taped to her arm – which proved crucial with stops from Mariona Caldentey and Aitana Bonmati before Chloe Kelly scored the decisive kick as the Lionesses retained the trophy.

The 24-year-old admitted she took the opportunity to try to negate any impact Spain’s penalty research might have, with Coll still saving efforts from Beth Mead and then captain Leah Williamson during the shoot-out, which England won 3-1.

“The Spanish keeper had it on her bottle,” Hampton told talkSPORT.

“So I thought when she was going in goal I’ll just pick it up and throw it into the English fans so she can’t have it.”

Hampton added: “I never put it on a bottle because anyone can do that, so that is why I put it on my arm, and the TV caught that.

“It wasn’t hard – when she has gone in the goal it (the bottle) is on its own isn’t it? It is in a towel, you just pick it up.

“Mine is blank, but it has the same sponsors and stuff so I just put mine in there, chucked her one into the fans and she had an empty bottle, she was looking for where it is.

“She was walking back and I was walking the other way. She was so confused.

“I was trying so hard not to burst out laughing (because) I was like ‘oh, I don’t know where it has gone’…. but you have got to do something haven’t you?”

Coll laughed off Hampton’s claim, tweeting in Spanish alongside a pair of laughing emojis: “Okay, okay, calm down. If only it were true…”

England had also come through a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Sweden, where both sides failed to convert spot-kicks at crucial moments – which Hampton described as “traumatic” and “horrendous”.

However, the Chelsea keeper, who was named in UEFA’s team of the tournament, felt much more relaxed ahead of the final showdown with Spain, which had ended 1-1 after extra-time in Basel.

“I was probably more comfortable in the fact that I knew we had practised penalties since that first one, so I knew we would put a few more in the back of the net,” Hampton said.

“Before the games we as a keeper group have meetings and we analyse every penalty that each individual from the opposing team has had – I think Alexia (Putellas) had 46 penalties we had to sit there and watch.

“You will watch it and pick out little things they do, whether they go one side or the other or have little subtleties in their run up or even their arm position.

“Then pressure penalties, where they tend to put them, you see all of that and then you see their run up and adapt in the moment to it.”