Lauren Hemp: England ‘thrive under pressure’ despite slow Euros start | OneFootball

Lauren Hemp urges England to trust their quality as their Women’s Euro 2025 hopes hang in the balance after a 2-1 defeat to France.

The Lionesses displayed worrying signs in the side’s Women’s Euro 2025 opener, falling to a 2-1 defeat to France in Zurich.

The Manchester City forward said the side are disappointed, but ready to make amends on matchday two, where they face Sarina Wiegman’s former side Netherlands.

“I think this team, a lot of the time, we thrive under pressure,” Hemp said. “Obviously it’s one of those situations, every game we go into we want to win. From how we acted the last 10 minutes of the game, we know what’s at stake, and we obviously want to get as far as we can.

“We are the reigning champions, it’s is important to remember that and gain confidence from that.”

“Obviously we’re really disappointed in yesterday’s result but there’s still parts of the game yesterday where we can take confidence from especially going into the game on Wednesday.

“We started strong and I thought we finished strong as well. Obviously in parts of the game there’s so much we can improve on, but we’re going to look back at that today and really work hard in what we can take forward into the Wednesday game.

“We know we’ve got to win the next two games and I think the fight at the end of the game showed how much we’re willing to do for this team and how much we want to make sure that we get through to the next round.”

England’s performance was laced with issues, and one in particular that Hemp highlighted was the sloppiness in possession.

“I think quality and possession is a massive thing,” she added. “We like to pride ourselves with that as a team.

“Unfortunately, sometimes in games that happens, we make mistake after mistake, but it’s important that we obviously reflect on that and we know that we can be better.

“But something that we can take from that is the fight that we’ve shown, and even when things aren’t going our way, we can still try and turn it around. We came up close, even though that we weren’t at our best, so that means we can compete against the best, even though we aren’t necessarily at our best.

“We know that you can’t afford to do that in this competition, so we’re going to make sure our best going into the next game.”

Speaking on her own role within the Lionesses squad, the 24-year-old spoke on how her place in the squad has transformed over the course of her 64 appearances.

“I still feel like a young player just coming in, but I need to realise that there’s also a lot of younger players than me coming in as well. I’ve been very lucky to have the experiences that I have done in finals of tournaments, and so I need to bring in that leadership.

“Everyone’s got so many different leadership qualities, whether that’s on the pitch or off the pitch. And I’m probably more of a leader on the pitch in the way that I perform. I do anything for this team, and I fight till the final whistle whether I’m having a good game or a bad game. So yeah, I think a lot of people could learn from that as well.”

England will now turn their attention to the Netherlands, who flew past Wales in a 3-0 victory in their Euros opener. If the Lionesses are to lose the encounter, and France are to beat Wales, that would mean a confirmed group stage exit for England.