The sense of occasion certainly got to a number of players in one of the worst penalty shoot-outs seen in any competition, however, that shouldn't define what went before.
Women's football has been derided in the past, but for a while now there's been a year-on-year improvement in terms of the quality on show and entertainment value.
That was certainly evidenced in Thursday night's match-up which didn't finish until almost midnight local time.
It was the 16th match that Sarina Wiegman had taken charge of at the Women's Euros, the most of any manager, and with Italy waiting in the semi-finals, England's route to the final had already been mapped out.
The youngest average starting XI for England since 2009 (27y 170d) certainly wouldn't have bargained for such a poor start to the match.
Imperious Blackstenius
Kosovare Asllani, making her 38th appearance at a major tournament, the fifth most among European players, put Sweden ahead after just one minute and 44 seconds of play with the quickest goal that England have conceded in any European Championship.
Stina Blackstenius was on hand with the assist and almost scored herself just a few minutes later with her 18th shot of the tournament, the most of any player.
Things were already looking ominous for the Lionesses at that point, as they'd won just one of their last seven Women's Euro matches in which they'd conceded first (D1 L5), and Sweden were unbeaten in their last 17 matches in which they'd scored first (W15 D2).
After some very sloppy play by England approaching the midway point of the first-half, Blackstenius doubled Sweden's lead.
Long way back for the Lionesses
As if to ram home the difficulty England had in coming back from the dead, they'd only avoided defeat once at the Euros when trailing by 2+ goals and that was way back in 2009 when beating Russia 3-2 in the group stage.
Sweden had won all 12 of their matches at the tournament when leading by 2+ goals, and no team in the competition's history had come back to win a knockout match when losing by 2+ goals.
The chink of light that Wiegman might have been looking for did arrive after the second Sweden goal, however, as the Lionesses accrued 68.3% possession over the final 15 minutes of the first-half.
That was upped to 72.2% over the course of the opening 15 minutes of the second half, during which Georgia Stanway, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp had shots that asked questions of the Swedish defence.
Still England poured forward but another three shots came to nothing. It wasn't for the want of trying as their 21 attempted crosses in the match by that point was higher than their average of 20.3 in the tournament. By the end of proceedings, this had been raised to an incredible 40 attempted crosses.
Kelly changed the game
The introduction of Chloe Kelly for Hemp with 13 minutes left changed everything. Just one minute and three seconds after coming on, she provided a superb long-range assist for Lucy Bronze to give her side hope of an unlikely comeback.
Less than two minutes later Kelly's trickery saw her find Beth Mead in the area, and her knock down was gleefully poked home by fellow sub, Michelle Agyemang.
No further action of note saw the match head into extra-time when things exploded into life again, both sides really going for it in order to avoid the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.
England had won three of their four previous European Championship knockout ties that had gone to extra-time, though their only defeat came against the Swedes.
Lucy Bronze sets the gold standard for England
Certainly, the Lionesses were reliant on the experience and battle-hardened bravery of Bronze, the full-back making seven clearances - the most from an England perspective - and three interceptions down one end, whilst getting four touches in the opposition box.
The 20 one-on-one duels she engaged in throughout the match was also superior to all of the opposition bar Sweden's Julia Zigiotti Olme, with 26, and the regaining of possession 12 times was more than any player in a game at the tournament.
Despite a late flurry of presentable chances, Sweden were unable to take advantage and may feel aggrieved that they were unable to stop the game heading to penalties.
When they look back on Blackstenius completing four of her five dribbles, getting 12 touches in the England box which included four shots and three of which were on target, as well as having seven shots on target collectively, losing the game will hit hard.
Wiegman admits match was her most chaotic
Not to mention players such as Johanna Rytting Kaneryd directing operations and leading by example with 21 total duels attempted, four dribbles attempted and an 81.3% pass accuracy, the most of any Sweden player with more than 10 touches.
The penalties were a disaster for both sides quite frankly, and even Sarina Wiegman admitted in the press conference after the game that the match was the most chaotic she'd ever been involved in.
However, the fact remains that England had more of the ball across the 120 minutes (59.8% to 40.2%), made more passes (536 to 365), had a far superior passing accuracy (74.3% to 58.6%) and also had more shots (18 to 14).
Italy loom large in the semi-final
In fact, in almost every metric bar shots on target and percentage of duels won, the Lionesses had the upper hand.
If they want to retain their title, however, they'll need to put in a much more complete performance against Italy on Tuesday.
