England looking to experience to save Euro 2025 hopes

Yahoo

4 days ago

By Laura Howard, Sportsbeat
At Canada's Moncton Stadium in 2015, England opened their World Cup campaign with defeat to France. They would go on to make history.
A decade later, as the Lionesses formed a huddle at the end of a 2-1 defeat in their Euro 2025 opener in Switzerland, Lucy Bronze chose to remind her teammates of that loss.
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That tournament saw England reach their first-ever World Cup semi-final and marked the start of an era of success that would culminate in the Lionesses' Euro 2022 victory at Wembley.
While Bronze and Alex Greenwood are the only players to have experienced that 1-0 loss to France in 2015, it provided a vital reminder of what remains possible for England in their title defence.
'Lucy pulled us together and it was just a together moment to be like, 'Okay we got a 2-1, we could have even got a draw,'' said Georgia Stanway.
'Even at our worst, we were still able to put a performance together that was worthy of a draw."
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As Sarina Wiegman's team enter an era of a 'new England', with expectations and support far higher than 10 years ago, the need to perform remains the same.
The 2015 England side went on to defeat Mexico 2-1, before sealing their progression with victory over Colombia by the same scoreline.
But for Wiegman's team, the task will be much harder as they meet the Netherlands in their second Group D match of Euro 2025.
England all but need a win to keep their hopes alive, with a draw unlikely to be enough, and if that was not enough jeopardy already, narratives abound between two sides who have become familiar foes.
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It was the Netherlands who stood in the way for Team GB's qualification to the Paris 2024 Olympics, as England competed to qualify the team.
Despite the Lionesses' 6-0 victory over Scotland, the Dutch ran up a four-goal deficit against Belgium to finish top of their 2023 Nations League group to bag Olympic qualification.
They could take such hopes of progression away from England once more, with a victory guaranteeing a quarter-final place for Oranje Leeuwinnen.
But doing so would require many of them to grab victory from those they would deem friends.
Wiegman will face her former team on Wednesday night, one with whom she created history to win Euro 2017 on home soil.
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Her assistant Arjan Veurink will face both a former employer and the team he will return to at the close of the tournament - a topic Wiegman refuses to comment on.
And within the ranks of players involved there are domestic teammates, partners and friends from past clubs all competing in a high stakes encounter which will see all those connections cast to the side.
Familiarity comes in many forms and the two sides have had ample opportunity to hash out such strange dynamics over the past few years.
The sides have exchanged wins in five meetings since 2016, England having triumphed 3-2 most recently in December 2023 and following that trend, it would be the Netherlands' turn.
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But if experience shows anything it is that trends can not be relied upon, a lesson England learned the hard way when they became the first side to lose their opening European Championship game as reigning champions against France.
Those recollections of Canada will prove vital experience for the Lionesses now, with England not having lost a group game at a major tournament since.
'We have so many players in our squad who have competed at the highest level for such a long time now, with Lucy being at the top of that,' said Alessia Russo.
'She's someone with so much experience and also such a wise head on her shoulders. A lot of the team lean into her in tougher moments because she has experienced everything.
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'She gives great advice and these are the people that you need in your team and you really value.'
While the Netherlands provide a far more challenging proposition than Mexico, England will hope their 2015 World Cup is a trend they can follow with anything but three points simply not enough.