“ABSOLUTE euphoria” recalls Claire Rafferty, reflecting on her emotions at the end of the Lionesses’ World Cup quarter-final victory over Canada in Vancouver on this day five years ago. “I think it was probably the most important victory in England’s history, I really do.” 

Three successive tournament semi-finals have now established the Lionesses as one of the world’s leading football sides but, in 2015, reaching the last four of the World Cup was unchartered territory for the England women’s team. Each of their previous campaigns had ended in quarter-final defeat.

It was also a landmark for coverage of women’s football in this country. England’s earlier games had been broadcast on BBC Three, but the quarter-final was the first match of the tournament shown on BBC One. 1.6 million people stayed up past midnight on a Saturday to watch a team of women make football history. Rafferty felt “even though it was on late, people really brought into the narrative of the story of who we are.”