Aggie Beever-Jones lauds Hannah Hampton for stepping up at Euro 2025 after Mary Earps’ retirement | OneFootball

Aggie Beever-Jones praised England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton for stepping up after Mary Earps’ surprise retirement from the international team.

Hampton played a crucial role in the Lionesses’ first goal of their convincing 4-0 victory over the Netherlands, after her pass split the Dutch defence and found Alessia Russo, who played Lauren James in to score.

After Earps retired just five weeks before Euro 2025, the pressure was on Hampton. However, Beever-Jones praised her England and Chelsea teammate for showing her quality on the international stage.

“We all know Hannah’s raw talent,” Beever-Jones said. “We see it at Chelsea week in, week out in training.

“I think she’s arguably got the best distribution I’ve seen for a goalkeeper, and it’s nice when a pass like that comes off and it leads to a goal because people sometimes acknowledge it a bit more.

“I think the way she kicks the ball, it doesn’t even look like she puts any effort into it, and I think that’s what goes in her favour massively. We were asking her ‘how many times have you watched that back’ and she was trying to keep it chill.

“But I’m delighted for her because I think she had a lot of pressure coming into this with Mary retiring and her stepping in, and I think she’s done a great job. I’m just delighted that she’s been able to show everyone what she can do on the biggest stage.

“The goalkeepers are constantly shooting against one another and I think that probably helps her, but hopefully she won’t be coming for my place any time soon!”

Beever-Jones made her mark in an England shirt after an impressive 33-minute hat-trick on May 30 in the Lionesses’ last game at Wembley ahead of the Euros.

Sarina Wiegman chose not to call on her in England’s first game against France, where they lost 2-1, but the 21-year-old was handed her first minutes of the tournament against the Netherlands, when she came on in the 84th minute.

“For me, it’s about trusting Sarina [Wiegman] and trusting the process,” Beever-Jones added. “We have a squad full of incredible players so I just have to take my opportunity when it comes.

“I was grateful to come on the other day [against Netherlands] and show a little bit of what I can do. Hopefully I get some more opportunities to do that. I think it’s a credit to the team for having such an incredible squad. I just want to help out where I can.

“She did say it was a tough game [against France] and she looked elsewhere to bring other people on and I just have to respect that. I think I know my strengths and I have done it for two years coming off the bench for Chelsea and hopefully making an impact.

“Sarina is well aware of that and I respected that decision. She knows I’ll be ready no matter what, whenever the time comes.”

Beever-Jones watched Euro 2022 as a fan, with ambitions of breaking into the senior England set up and is now making her tournament debut in Switzerland. She is trying to take it all in, and has her own way of keeping memories.

“Yeah, it’s weird, although I’m doing this right now, it still doesn’t even really feel like it’s happening,” she said.

“I’d be delighted if someone told that girl [in my grassroots kit] that she’d be here right now doing this so I’d definitely say it is very surreal and I’m just trying to take it in my stride as much as I can and take it day by day.

“They gave us a journal, people are using it however they wish. I’m quite big on writing stuff down, so I’ve got a little memory book, I’m quite into photography, so I take pictures.

“I’ve got my own little wall chart of each game and I’m jotting it down. So it’s full of memories and just little details that sometimes you might forget. Every day we go to wellness and one of the physios writes a quote on the wall and I just always write it down and just try and find the joy in the little things and appreciate everything else that’s going on.

“I think it’s just nice to find some hobbies outside of football sometimes. The prints I take are in my journal. Got a few Polaroids stuck in there, so maybe I’ll show you guys sometime.”