MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Melvyn Jaminet landed a seventh penalty with two minutes remaining for France to end a 31-year drought by beating the Wallabies in Australia 28-26 on Tuesday and sending the three-test series to a decider.

France lost the opening test by two points last Wednesday after a late blunder in its own quarter in Brisbane.

There was no mistake this time.

Australia had only just taken the lead for the first time in the 75th minute when the French pack shoved the Wallabies off the ball to earn a scrum penalty. Jaminet coolly slotted the penalty to cap the victory, a first over the Wallabies in Australia since 1990, and take his personal match haul to 23 points.

The French controlled the ball in the dying minutes and kicked for touch as soon as the siren sounded, in contrast to the first test when they should have done the same thing but, instead, saw an errant late pass literally throw away the match.

“I’m really proud for what we’ve done tonight,” France captain Anthony Jelonch said. “We managed to do what we couldn’t do last Wednesday.”

France coach Fabien Galthie said the win by his depleted squad was a “victory for all those who support us.”

He said it would kick off the Jul 14 national holiday a few hours in advance: “Let’s savor together!”

The series-deciding third test will be back in Brisbane on Saturday.

France led most of the match, again. Jaminet landed two penalties and converted Damian Penaud’s counterattacking try in the 21st minute to give the visitors a 13-3 lead.

The Australians had chances to take the lead, with winger Marika Koroibete crossing the line twice early in the first half but having tries disallowed both times — once for a knock on early in the movement and another for a forward pass.

The French led 16-6 with halftime approaching when scrumhalf Jake Gordon scored a roles-reversed try inside the left corner post.

The Australian forwards attacked the French line for seven phases before prop Taniela Tupou picked up from the base of a ruck and, instead of burrowing for the line, threw a cut-out pass wide to an unmarked Gordon to dive across the line.

Flyhalf Noah Lolesio, who kicked Australia’s stoppage-time winner in the first test, added the sideline conversation to cut the halftime margin to three points.

He equalized at 16-all soon after the break but the French added three more penalties and led 25-16 with about 15 minutes to go.

The French knocked on over the tryline in the 55th minute but Jaminet added three points from the penalty advantage. They went close to another try on the hour, with back-rower Cameron Woki winning a lineout against the throw near his own tryline and then orchestrating an attack down the short side to get his team deep in Australian territory.

Seven phases later, the French forwards were held up over the line but Jaminet again was able to nail the penalty goal.

They were seemingly right on top on the eve of Bastille Day.

But just as in the series-opener, the Australians rallied to set up a dramatic finish.

Skipper Michael Hooper dived over in the left corner to cap a long-range try in the 71st after Lolesio threw an inside pass to Tom Banks, who cut through a big gap in the defense from behind halfway and took the ball toward the attacking quarter.

His over-the-top pass to his support hit Jaminet’s hand before Andrew Kellaway regathered for Australia and unloaded to flanker Hooper to score in the corner.

Lolesio converted from the sideline to cut the gap to 25-23 and landed another penalty from 40 meters out to put Australia ahead 26-25 with five minutes remaining.

From the restart France dominated, though, eventually winning the scrum penalty that set up Jaminet to take the winning penalty and keep the series alive.

“They played a really good French game tonight, taking points, building pressure,” Hooper said. “Credit to them.

But, “there’s a lot of disappointing things there. We strung some nice phases together, and had them under pressure, but a really easy pressure release there for the opposition. Like I said, they were really good on our ball, but we can be much better in that zone.”

LONDON (AP) — British police opened investigations Monday into the racist abuse of three Black players who failed to score penalties in England’s shootout loss to Italy in the European Championship final.

The Metropolitan Police condemned the “unacceptable” abuse of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, and said they will be investigating the “offensive and racist” social media posts published soon after Italy won Sunday’s shootout 3-2 following a 1-1 draw. A mural of Rashford on the wall of a cafe in south Manchester was also defaced with graffiti in the wake of the match.

The racist abuse, which was condemned as “unforgivable” by England coach Gareth Southgate, has led to calls for social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, to do more in hunting down the perpetrators of the abuse.

All three players targeted are part of a young England squad that has been widely praised for its diversity and social conscience. Rashford, for one, has been at the forefront of a campaign against child poverty, which convinced the British government to restore free lunches for thousands of poor children amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together, in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue,” Southgate said Monday.

The abuse was widely condemned, with Prince William, the president of the English Football Association, saying he was “sickened” by the racism aimed at the England players.

“It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour,” he wrote on Twitter. “It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday told those who directed racist abuse at some of the players that he hoped “you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged.”

But he has faced criticism for emboldening those booing the England team for taking a knee before their matches to protest against racial injustice.

Last month, Johnson’s spokesman said the prime minister is “more focused on action rather than gestures.” That comment led to widespread criticism that Johnson was effectively encouraging those booing to carry on. Three days later, his spokesman changed tack, saying the prime minister “respects the right of all people to peacefully protest and make their feelings known about injustices” and that he wanted them to cheer the team and “not boo.”

Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, accused Johnson of a failure of leadership for not calling out the booing of the England team.

“The prime minister failed to call that out and the actions and inactions of leaders have consequences, so I’m afraid the prime minister’s words today ring hollow,” he said.

Gary Neville, a former Manchester United player and now a TV commentator, said he wasn’t surprised that the three players who failed to convert their penalties were targeted for racist abuse and also called out Johnson.

“The prime minister said it was OK for the population of this country to boo those players who are trying to promote equality and defend against racism,” he said on Sky News. “It starts at the very top and so for me I wasn’t surprised in the slightest that I woke up this morning to those headlines.”

In recent years, soccer authorities in England have joined with the players in trying to tackle racism both within the sport — at every level — and in society as a whole.

The English FA said it will give the players affected what support it can and will press on authorities for the “toughest punishments possible” for anyone found to have been responsible for the abuse.

“We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences,” it said.

Social media companies, it said, need to “step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms” to ensure that their platforms are “free from this type of abhorrent abuse.”

Facebook, which owns Instagram, said Monday it tried to remove harmful content as quickly as possible and encouraged people to use the tools it offers to block abuse.

“We quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England’s footballers last night and we’ll continue to take action against those that break our rules,” it said in a statement.

Twitter said the “abhorrent racist abuse” has no place on its platform, adding it removed more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating its rules.

“We will continue to take action,” Twitter said, “when we identify any tweets or accounts that violate our policies.”

The British government is planning new laws to enshrine a new legal duty of care on online companies to protect users from harm, including people receiving abusive comments, threats and harassment.

Story: Frank Griffiths and Pan Pylas

ROME (AP) — Italians celebrated the European Championship football title as a new beginning not only for their youthful national team but for a country that’s been yearning to return to normalcy after being hit hard and long by the coronavirus pandemic.

A cacophony of honking cars, fireworks and singing fans filled the night in Rome as thousands of people took to the streets after Italy beat England in a penalty shootout Sunday to win its first major football trophy since the 2006 World Cup.

“We are coming out of a difficult year and a half which has left us exhausted, like other countries in the world,” said Fabrizio Galliano, a 29-year-old from Naples who watched the match on a big screen in downtown Rome. “This means so much. Sports is one of the things that unites us, among all the things that separate us. But to finally be able to feel that joy that we’ve been missing, it goes beyond sports.”

Many Italians saw the European Championship as a relaunch for a country that spent much of the past 16 months in various stages of lockdown. Italy was the first country outside Asia to get hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and suffered immensely, particularly in the spring of 2020 when hospitals in northern Italy were overwhelmed with patients and the death toll soared. Italy has recorded more than 127,000 COVID deaths, the highest in the 27-nation European Union.

“It’s been a complicated year for everyone but especially for us who were one of the first countries hit. This is a signal of a new beginning,” said Michela Solfanelli, a 30-year-old event producer based in Milan.

Most virus restrictions have been lifted since the spring and those that remain were largely ignored by the mass of Italy fans who danced in the streets of the capital chanting “we are champions of Europe.”

David Bellomo, a 23-year-old from the southern city of Bari, pointed out that this was Italy’s second big victory this year, after Italian band Maneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest in May.

“Thanks to Eurovision and thanks to this game and football we’ve managed to come back this year,” he said. “We almost got a triple,” he added, referring to Matteo Berrettini, the Italian tennis player who lost the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic earlier in the day.

Shoulder to shoulder, fans nervously watched the penalty shootout on two big screens set up on Piazza del Popolo, an ellipitcal cobblestone square at the edge of Rome’s historic center. A deafening roar rose to the sky as Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved England’s last penalty.

Among the sea of blue Italy shirts was an immigrant family from Senegal, who came from the town of Zagarolo, an hour outside Rome, to experience the final with the crowd in the piazza.

“I am not Italian, but I can feel the emotions. I feel it, as if I were Italian,” said Falilou Ndao, 42. “We really love this country.”

His 13-year-old son Yankho, an Italy fan and football player, was impressed by the team.

“They showed courage. They never gave up, even when they were down by a goal,” he said. “It is so well-deserved. They have been playing great the entire tournament. Go Italy!”

Though people are still required to wear masks in crowded situations, police made no attempts to intervene as throngs of barefaced fans poured of out the piazza, singing the national anthem and lighting flares. Fireworks cracked overhead as fans cruised through the city waving Italian flags from their cars.

Dr. Annamaria Altomare, a 39-year-old gastroenterologist, watched the spectacle with a friend from a safe distance. They were among the few wearing masks.

“We want to avoid the delta variant in this mess,” she said, laughing.

Story: Karl Ritter

LONDON (AP) — So close.

It took just a few weeks to undo decades of pessimism for England fans, persuading millions that the team could defy decades of disappointment and win a major international soccer tournament for the first time since 1966.

For much of Sunday’s final against Italy, it felt like it might.

But when Italy won the European Championship in a 3-2 penalty shootout, following a match that ended 1-1 after extra time, fans sat with heads in hands. At a fan zone in Croydon, south London, friends hugged one another in consolation as a DJ played Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger.”

Hundreds who had gathered for hours in London’s Trafalgar Square filed off dejectedly, broken glass from beer bottles crunching underfoot.

In Newcastle, northern England, the crowd watching at a fan zone applauded the dejected team.

“We have come so far, winning would have topped it all off,” said 18-year-old student Millie Carson. “The team has brought the country together. Everyone has been loving life in these hard times.”

But one fan expressed a widespread sense of frustration, shouting: “I cannot do this anymore.”

England’s last victory at a major international soccer tournament was the 1966 World Cup, before the lifetimes of most people in the country. Many fans said that regardless of the outcome, a half-century cloud had been lifted by manager Gareth Southgate’s young and dynamic team.

The team’s surprising success at the Euros has been a balm for many in England after decades of dashed hopes, more than a year of pandemic restrictions and more than 128,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the U.K..

Even soccer skeptics who associated English fans with drunken boorishness and xenophobia got behind the young, multi-ethnic team whose members took a knee against racism before games, supported LGBT pride, campaigned against poverty — and vanquished longstanding rivals like Germany.

“It had created this sense of optimism within the country that we hadn’t been able to have for ages, and this was our moment to realize that we could really bring something home,” said Luke McGee, a fan in London.

“We had done so well the entire tournament and to lose right at the last minute was really quite devastating.”

On Sunday queues formed outside pubs before opening time at noon as people sought a big screen and company for the evening match.

Some started the party too soon, and a minority caused drunken mayhem. Hours before the game, fans packed pubs, clubs and outdoor fan zones in towns and cities across England. Central London’s Leicester Square became a sea of discarded food wrappers, plastic bags and beer bottles as hundreds of fans sang and partied; some threw bottles and set off flares.

Thousands of fans without tickets descended on Wembley Stadium, some scrambling up trees and traffic lights to fly the England flag. There were chaotic scenes as security staff and police scuffled with hundreds who tried to storm barriers and enter the stadium.

Wembley officials initially insisted no one without tickets had got inside, but London’s Metropolitan Police said “a small number” of ticketless fans had entered the 90,000-seat stadium, where capacity was supposed to be limited to a pandemic-restricted 67,000.

Bottles were thrown as fans left Wembley after the game, and police in riot gear stood by. Some fans in London’s Trafalgar Square lashed out after the defeat by kicking fences, smashing bottles, overturning garbage bins and fighting with one another.

The Metropolitan Police said 45 people had been arrested across London throughout the day. The force also said it was investigating “offensive and racist” messages on social media directed at some players. Marcus Rashford and Buyako Saka were both subjected to racist abuse after missing penalties.

England’s Football Association condemned the abuse and called for “the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.”

Earlier, hundreds had gathered to watch the game on big screens at an official fan zone in the square, growing increasingly soggy but undaunted in the London rain.

“I never thought I’d see anything like this in my lifetime,” said 32-year-old fan Neil James before kickoff. “I can’t even comprehend the idea England could win something. I just want to drink and drink tonight — work tomorrow is on the back burner.”

As they absorbed Sunday’s defeat, some fans were already looking toward next year’s World Cup in Qatar.

“I’m gutted,” said 19-year-old Jake Shepherd in Newcastle. “But this sets us for the World Cup — who says we cannot win it?”

Story: Jill Lawless

BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Argentina finally made Lionel Messi cry with joy.

After losing four times in finals, early exits in major tournaments and even a decision to retire from the national team, the superstar celebrated a much-awaited title with Argentina at Saturday’s 1-0 win against Brazil in the Maracana Stadium.

The title ended Argentina’s 28-year drought of major trophies, with Messi as the best player with four goals and five assists. The captain also broke the team’s record for international appearances with 151 matches.

When Uruguayan referee Esteban Ostojich blew the final whistle, Messi knelt down on the pitch and covered his face with his hands.

The next challenge is to win the World Cup in Qatar next year, which would be the first since Maradona took the team to glory in 1986.

Until Saturday, Messi’s titles with Argentina were only the U-20 World Cup title in 2005 and a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

His first frustration at the senior-team level started at age 19 in the World Cup quarterfinals elimination against Germany in 2006. One year later, he saw Brazil beat Argentina 3-0 in the Copa America final.

His next major shot at winning with Argentina came in the 2014 World Cup final against Germany. The 1-0 defeat at the Maracana Stadium in Rio frustrated the star, who was voted the best player of the tournament, though his form was not as impressive as it was at his club.

Chile would crush Messi’s hopes in two Copa America finals, in 2015 and 2016, both on penalties.

After the second defeat to Chile, Messi told journalists that the national team was over for him.

“It is not for me. I tried, I think that is it,” he said.

But he returned for South American World Cup qualifiers in which Argentina struggled. He took the team to Russia, but the round-of-16 defeat against France came at a turbulent time for the team.

Messi became more aggressive in the 2019 Copa America, much to the pleasure of Argentinian fans who considered him to be too cold, too European. Under a coach with little experience, Lionel Scaloni, he was surrounded by young players who got the best of him.

On Saturday Messi kissed the Copa America trophy and lifted it at age 34. The biggest gap in his decorated career is now closed.

Story: Debora Rey