England Players And Subs Stand In Support Of Carter

England's players stood earlier their Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy began connected Tuesday aft nan Lionesses decided to extremity taking nan knee.

The substitutes stood arm-in-arm connected nan touchline earlier kick-off successful a show of solidarity pinch team-mate Jess Carter, who has been subjected to online racist maltreatment since nan tourney began.

They were not joined by their Italian counterparts.

When asked if Italy would make a motion astatine nan match, defender Cecilia Salvai said they were "open and consenting to do thing necessary".

Sections of nan crowd astatine Stade de Geneve sung Carter's opus and applauded successful nan 16th infinitesimal successful support of nan defender, whose squad number is 16.

On Sunday, England's players announced they would nary longer return nan knee earlier nan commencement of matches aft Carter revealed she has been racially abused connected societal media passim nan tournament.

The decision was questioned by nan caput of football's world anti-discrimination body, Fare.

The Lionesses adopted nan anti-racism motion - popularised by American shot subordinate Colin Kaepernick successful 2016 - during Euro 2022 and nan 2023 Women's World Cup, but said successful a connection that it is "clear we and shot request to find different measurement to tackle racism".

On Monday, England head Sarina Wiegman told BBC Sport's Dan Roan: "Taking nan knee, that's not enough. We person done that for a while. The effect is not bully enough, it's not arsenic large arsenic we think.

"When location is this shape of racism we felt we person to do thing else, thing different, truthful that's why we are not taking nan knee."

Wiegman said that Carter "wants to play and is available," but nan Gotham FC defender was named among nan substitutes pinch Esme Morgan preferred successful cardinal defence alongside skipper Leah Williamson.

Speaking to ITV earlier nan match, erstwhile England striker Ian Wright said that while he would return nan knee if he were still playing, he felt nan determination to do truthful is simply a "personal thing" and nan motion was "always forced connected people".

The victor of Tuesday's crippled will play either Spain aliases Germany successful nan last astatine Basel's St Jakob-Park connected Sunday, 27 June astatine 17:00 BST.