England’s 6-1 win over Wales secured their place in the last eight, concluding what was eventually a successful group stage for the defending champions.

By Jamie Spencer

Since a humbling defeat to France at Euro 2025, England have upped the intensity, made sure to get the basics right and played with an admirable directness that has been difficult for subsequent opponents – Netherlands and Wales – to contend with.

“It wasn’t the way we wanted to start the tournament but it’s a bit of a rocket and we’ve shown in these last couple of games that this is how we play,” Ella Toone told BBC Sport following Sunday night’s one-sided score-line against the Welsh.

Beth Mead echoed those comments, also telling the BBC, “We said that you don’t win or lose a tournament in the first game. We are a very motivated team and we enjoy being under pressure, you can tell that in the last two games when we’ve needed to win.”

Now that they’ve hit their stride, the Lionesses will expect that standard to remain throughout. Overall, England scored 11 group stage goals, bettered only by Spain (14), and conceded just three, with only Sweden (1) putting up a meaner defence in the opening round.

Sarina Wiegman’s team selection against the Dutch on matchday two of the group stage had been motivated by a desire to play direct. Toone’s ability to break forward from midfield and Alessia Russo’s willingness to run behind defences were both decisive factors in that crucial win.

Once Wiegman finds a winning formula, she rarely strays from it – the same XI famously started all six games at Euro 2022, while there was a similar pattern at the World Cup in 2023 after switching to a 3-5-2 during the group stage. And although here were doubts about her choices at the beginning of this tournament, the loyalty shown to certain players has now been rewarded, the tweaks between facing France and the Netherlands worked, and the Lionesses are properly up and running.

England should never have had a problem facing Wales. The result, with a win necessary to reach the quarter-finals and keep their destiny in their own hands, was the important bit and it was a walkover.

Wales had conceded seven goals across their opening two games and were the lowest ranked team in the competition. Even a bit of extra fight because of the geographic rivalry was never going to be enough, especially after conceding the early penalty.

The 13^th minute spot-kick, converted by Georgia Stanway – who had herself been tripped just inside the penalty area, was a gift. But it came from building play on the right and Lauren James firing a cross into the box. The second started with a raking ball from deep towards the left flank from Leah Williamson, nodded into the area and causing chaos that Wales failed to deal with – Toone was there for the tap-in. A cross from Toone created Lauren Hemp’s third, a header at the far post, simple but effective. The fourth for Russo, her first goal of the tournament after racking up three assists, was more intricate play, but simplicity returned when Mead made it five as England quickly transitioned. And, again, a long diagonal pass out from defence, this time by Alex Greenwood, started the move that led to Aggie Beever-Jones getting the sixth, a knockdown, a cross and a free header.

England played on the front foot, with 58% of passes made in Wales territory. Favouring directness, 53 long balls found their intended target from 68 attempts – by contrast, Wales completed only four long passes. They also peppered the Welsh box with crosses, 25 of them, with 44% finding a fellow Lioness, and dominated the aerial game by winning 13 such duels against Wales’ eight.

“The team just showed up today,” was how Wiegman, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, described the performance. England are already very talented team, but ‘showing up’ probably matters more looking forward when there will be increasingly less to separate teams on a technical level.

Consistency is the next test for the reigning champions. Victory over Wales made it two consecutive wins for only the second time in 15 outings since last July, while England haven’t put together a run of three successive competitive wins since the 2023 World Cup.

The back and forth nature of the France-Netherlands result in the group’s other final fixture kept changing the standings and therefore who England will face in the last eight. France were ahead, then behind, and eventually victorious to finish top. They will go on to play Germany in the quarter-finals because of that, with England handed a meeting with an impressive Sweden that won Group C, but on the kinder side of the knockout bracket, away from the Germans and Spain.

‘Showing up’ against the Swedes, with the momentum built so far, and either Norway or Italy to face in the semi-finals if they get through, presents England a huge chance to go very far in defence of their title.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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England’s record-breaking win over the Netherlands kept them alive at Euro 2025 and erased all the negativity from a woeful start to the tournament against France.

By Jamie Spencer

That was much, much better.

England knew just how much was at stake before kick-off against the Netherlands on Wednesday. Defeat would have spelled elimination with a game still to play.

Prior to Saturday night’s humbling loss against France, no reigning European champion had ever been beaten in their opening game of the tournament. To create more unwanted history as the first holders not to escape the group stage was unthinkable.

Instead, there was a different piece of history, England became the first team ever to score more than two goals in a single major tournament game against the Netherlands. The 4-0 score-line and everything about the performance was the perfect response to what had unfolded four days earlier.

After being “absolutely bullied” by France, there was a call for calm from the Lionesses camp, no need to overreact. For midfielder Georgia Stanway, one of many off her usual game that evening, the defeat amounted to a “bad night out” to be forgotten, and nothing more.

Sarina Wiegman’s selection for game two raised eyebrows, making just a single change – Ella Toone for Beth Mead – and keeping faith in Jess Carter following a mauling by France winger Delphine Cascarino. But once the game kicked off, it was clear Carter had traded places with Alex Greenwood, who moved to left-back. Playing centrally, she instantly looked much more protected and comfortable.

Lauren James moved wide to accommodate Toone in the No. 10 role, which seemed to give the midfield a better balance and shape, but the Chelsea star had license to roam too.

After France, critics unfairly rounded on James. There were outside voices calling for her to be dropped, but she was the one England player who’d performed in that game. Everything the Lionesses did well in the first 15 minutes, until later being overrun, was through her.

Underpinned by vastly improved intensity and physicality from those around her – the Lionesses won 52% of all duels, up from only 42% against France – operating from the right seemed to suit James better. This was only her third game back from a hamstring injury that meant she didn’t feature for Chelsea in April or May. But the effortless quality on display made that impossible to detect.

It was a fine finish to break the deadlock only 22 minutes in, cutting onto her left foot on the edge of the box, and a poacher’s goal for England’s third on the hour mark, gobbling up a rebound after Toone’s initial shot had been blocked.

It wasn’t just on the ball either, she pinned Netherlands left-back Esmee Brugts from early on, nullifying what could have been a serious danger, given how vulnerable England had been in wide areas against France. In one instance, James forced Brugts back towards her own penalty area and won a corner. The Barcelona star didn’t return after the half-time interval.

At 4-0 up, James was withdrawn after 69 minutes, preserving her fitness with the job done.

Stanway scored England’s second with an opportunistic strike from distance. More importantly, she was back to her usual self in other ways, making more tackles (3) than any other player on the pitch. Toone had justified her starting place before adding the fourth, arriving unmarked in the box.

Alessia Russo deserves credit too, disappointing against France but coming away from this one with a hat-trick of assists. She put in the hard yards to stretch the pitch and keep the Dutch guessing – England’s first and fourth goals were the direct result of Russo running behind the defensive line and picking out the right pass at the right time.

“The priority was that we wanted to skip [midfield] and exploit space. The Netherlands pushed up so we wanted to go over them. That worked really well,” Wiegman explained after the final whistle. “When you’re in their half of the pitch, you can start playing. We had some nice crosses and we spoke about that too. We wanted Ella [to start] because she can make good runs in behind.”

As a whole, England played more on the front foot this time – 308 accurate passes were split exactly 50/50 between their own half and the opposition half, compared to just 29% of all successful Dutch passes being in English territory. In the first half alone, there were 11 attempts on goal, almost four times as many as in the opening 45 minutes against France (3).

Suddenly, France looks like a blip and this was the “proper England” – the buzz phrase doing the rounds since that result. Only time will tell if they are genuine contenders to retain the title, but 90 minutes against the Netherlands was enough of a statement to suggest they absolutely could be.

Next up, the aim is to finish the job by beating Wales on Sunday night to reach the knockouts stage.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from the 2025 Women’s Euros with FotMob – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings.

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