Pressure off Alessia Russo ahead of knockouts after scoring first goal at Euro 2025 | OneFootball

A relieved Alessia Russo celebrates scoring her first goal at Euro 2025 against Wales

Alessia Russo has discussed how the pressure of Euro 2025 has been slightly lifted ahead of the knockouts after she scored her first goal of the tournament against Wales.

England’s striker has had a tough time of things at Euro 2025 so far but after two group games without a goal, Alessia Russo has finally found the back of the net.

“It feels nice [to get my first goal],” Russo said. “I want to be scoring as much as I can. It took a bit longer than I would have liked but as much as I can contribute to the team in any possible way, I’ll always do.”

Despite not scoring in her first two games, Russo managed to play a crucial part in the Lionesses win against the Netherlands with three assists.

“Things don’t always go how you plan them to. But we knew that we still had a massive chance to get out of this group [after losing to France] and keep progressing in this tournament and that’s what we want.

“We want to be here right until the end so the reaction was really important and I think you could see that in the performances against Netherlands and Wales”.

Russo will be keen to get back amongst the goals in the knockout stages especially after being so cruelly denied two finishes in the first two games, with both ruled out for offside.

WATCH: Alessia Russo nets first goal at Euro 2025

Russo and England respect Sweden challenge

The Lionesses win against Wales meant that the team qualified for the quarter finals from second place in Group D, giving them a tough draw against Sweden on Thursday.

“Sweden are a top side.” Russo continued. “They’ve got lots of talented players and they play really well together. We’ll have to look into them over the next few days and get ready for a really tough game. It’s knockout football – it’s all down to one game, so we’ll do everything we can to be ready for it.

“We want to go out and keep this momentum going.  We know that knockout football is all down to that game and that game in the moment. So, yeah, we’ll be ready and we’ll do everything we can to win the game.”

England remain second favourites to retain their European Championship title this summer at a price of 4/1 with the best UK betting sites.

Although she only has one goal to her name so far, if England go far in the tournament there is still a chance that Russo can catch up to Spain’s Esther Gonzalez in the Golden Boot race on four goals.

Alessia Russo is currently 25/1 to win the Golden Boot.