England Women told to face Euro 2025 reality and rediscover 'untouchable' selves

Grace Clinton is taking hope from the fact that the Lionesses can still be unplayable as they face up to the reality of a must-win game against the Netherlands on Wednesday. Sarina Wiegman's team scored 13 unanswered goals in their final two home games before beginning their Euros defence against France, only to fall to a 2-1 defeat which leaves them with no margin for error.

“I think probably that if we play our games and we do our game to the best, everyone knows that sometimes we’re untouchable,” Clinton, who came on as a substitute in Zurich, said. “I think obviously getting our passes where they need to go, just the little detail I think then that would have been able to sort of break down France a little bit more, and obviously it was tough after our goal got disallowed.

“I think the momentum swung a little bit and we just have to get back into the game. But it's tournament football and these things are going to happen and now we've just got to take each game as it comes and win the next games.”

Saturday’s match in Zurich turned on fine margins, with a tight offside call denying Alessia Russo an opener for the Lionesses before Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore struck in a devastating four-minute spell late in the first half.

Keira Walsh pulled a goal back late on, but England couldn’t find that elusive second. Clinton remains hopeful, though, adding: I’ve got loads of confidence in this team. Not just watching them at the last Euros but the experience we have in the team.

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“In the last two years I've been here I’ve seen us not only come back from being in a losing position but win so many games. And I think the experience we've got and the players that we've got I've got all the confidence in the world.”

Ella Toone was another player who Wiegman turned to from the bench, and the Euro 2022 winner is confident England can use that experience to rebound on Wednesday. “I mean mentally I think we're strong anyway,” Toone said.

“We know what it takes to win tournaments, to get to finals in tournaments. We know how to play the game. And we knew that we always had to win two of these group games to get out, so nothing changes.

"Obviously you want to win all three, but yeah, they were good tonight, the France team were good, they had a lot of very good individuals, and yeah, we conceded goals that probably by our standards aren't good enough but yeah, we have the mentality to go again. I mean, we'll recover as best we can and make sure that we analyse the game, take the pros, take the cons and work harder next time.”

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