“No matter what, we’ll go into that game, we’ll give 100% and we’ll fight like we always do,” says Ella Toone | OneFootball

Ahead of England’s upcoming Euro 2025 final against Spain, Ella Toone spoke on how she and the England side are preparing. This is her third major tournament final and she has played in every game at these Euros, scoring against both The Netherlands and Wales.

“It’s mad. I’ve not actually thought about that. It’s amazing. To make three consecutive finals for England is something that we can all be so proud of, the country can be proud of,” Toone said. “We’re all really looking forward to it [the final] already. As soon as one game finishes, we’re already looking to the next. I’m really excited. I want to go out onto the pitch and give everything for England and for the team and for the fans watching and hopefully we can put on a good performance.”

The Lionesses have certainly had a tournament full of drama. They had received a lot of criticism after losing their opening game against France. However, they then won with an aggregate score of 10-1 in their next two games against The Netherlands and Wales. In the knockout stages, they won on penalties against Sweden after coming back from 2-0 down, and then defeated Italy after scoring two very late goals. Their next and last game of the tournament? The final.

“I’m not all for the drama but we’ve definitely made it dramatic this tournament and sometimes football is not always the way you want it to be and it would be lovely to win in 90 minutes, but teams who are playing against have been really tough and we’ve fought right until the very end. Even when it’s gone to penalties, even when it’s gone 120 minutes, we’ve never given up,” she said. “We like to add that little bit of drama. I know that the fans at home, we probably give them a heart attack and everyone in the stadium. You can see the fight from the team that no matter what we want to get the win, whatever game we’re playing.”

The game might result in a real midfield battle, with Patri Guijarro, Aitana Bonmatí & Alexia Putellas on one side, and Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway and Toone herself on the other. “I think in football, sometimes games are won and lost in the midfield. We know that we have to be on our game. We have so much respect for all three of them players, world-class players who are very talented and they are tough to play against, but we know what we’re capable of. Whoever plays in the midfield, we know we’ll do a job, an important job as well. And no matter what, we’ll go into that game, we’ll give 100% and we’ll fight like we always do,” Toone said.

England can potentially write even more history on Sunday night, and win the Euros back-to-back – a prospect which excited Toone. “I mean, that’s the dream, isn’t it? That’s the aim. You want to come into a tournament and you want to put on performances. We’ll fight, we’ll believe in ourselves and we’ll have that togetherness like we always do to hopefully get over the line.”

There has been a lot of pressure from outside the camp, but the players are all in their own bubble. “When we’re in camp, we stay in that little bubble and we don’t know too much about what’s going on at home. We don’t have that pressure on ourselves. The only pressure that we have is the one that you put on yourself individually. We’re all very competitive athletes who want to win and want to play well every single game.

“When we came into this tournament we said that we wanted to make the nation proud and I think we’ve done that already. We’ve reached a final for the third time in a row and that’s something that we can hold our heads high and we should be proud of and we know that no matter what we do we’re always inspiring the next generation of young girls and boys starting out in their journey so no pressure from our side, we’re definitely blocking that out and we’ll make sure that we prepare properly for the game on Sunday,” Toone continued.

England’s most recent performances have been all about comebacks, and the idea of ‘proper England,’ something which Toone is now more than familiar with.

“I think we’ve spoken about it quite a lot this camp, [the] proper English performance. I think we have it in us all individually as a team that we want to fight. We want to, not stop running and you’ve seen that in games where sometimes you might feel like we’re down and out and it’s 90 odd minutes and then someone comes on and we have one moment and we take that moment. That’s what it’s all about. It’s the squad depth, players having that belief that they can come on and really change the game. I think it’s all in us individually that we’re competitive and we want to win and we know what it takes to win in tournaments and yeah, that’s what we managed to do and that’s what’s got us to a third consecutive final.”

On their manager, Sarina Wiegman, Toone said: “I think we’ve nearly killed her twice this tournament: she said we’ve definitely aged her. But no, I think that’s five consecutive tournaments for Sarina being in a final and that’s just unbelievable. We know we’re in good hands. We know she’s a manager who can take teams right to the final. She’s done a few good speeches to be fair this camp, I’ll give it to her, we’ve been talking about it. She’s a great manager, she’s someone who we all have a lot of belief in. When we go out onto the pitch we fight for each other but we fight for her and the staff too and all the fans watching as well. [It is an ] unbelievable achievement for Sarina and for the team too.”

When puling on an England shirt, she says all she feels is pride. “Just pride. Every time I get to pull the shirt on, it’s just pride. It’s something that I dreamed of when I was a little girl, to play for England and to go to major tournaments representing your country. I still pinch myself now. I think I’m [on] 50-odd caps and it’s still an amazing feeling, just like the first one was. And when you pull the shirt on, you want to go out there and make everyone proud. You want to fight for each other, for the fans. And, I think as well when you pull that shirt on you have that sense of freedom and belief and yeah that’s definitely the feelings that I get when I pull it on yeah it never changes.”

England’s Euro 2025 final against Spain will kick off at 17:00 [GMT] on Sunday 27th July at St. Jakob-Park in Basel.