Lionesses find recipe for Euro 2025 success with ‘English’ performance | Tom Garry | OneFootball

While Wembley was rejoicing at the sight of England putting the ball in Spain’s net, there were two people noticeably not joining in with the celebrations. Sarina Wiegman had reacted to the Lionesses’ goal by making her way urgently down to the touchline for a detailed conversation with her captain, Leah Williamson, clearly relaying some key tactical details.

Such a sight is not uncommon in top-level sport, but on Wednesday night it felt particularly indicatory of England’s focus, determination and steadfast resolve to win. Their committed performance in the 1-0 Nations League triumph was one of a side fixated on nothing but victory, high levels of work rate, concentration and, perhaps above all, grit. The centre-back Millie Bright had another description for it: “Proper English.”

Asked about that phrase, Williamson said: “That’s what we spoke about before [the game]. Sometimes, you’ve just got to do the job that’s in front of you and we’re never ashamed to do that. We want to play great football and in the first half there were some lovely passages of play, and the goal, that is still ‘us’, but we’re English too. English football fans know what that means and to come out and do that at Wembley, to get three points, it’s a good feeling. That’s who we are and we’re prepared to be whatever we need to be.

“Individually there were some spectacular defensive performances, in terms of winning one-v-ones, but the shape as a team was also good. We were hard to break down. We gave them a few too many shots on the edge of the area but they still weren’t from within too much, so I think it was a good showing.”

It would be unjust to imply this was a backs-to-the-wall, negative, “park the bus” performance. Far from it. England played some good, progressive football at times when they were in possession. Alessia Russo’s hold-up play and Grace Clinton’s industry helped them move up the pitch with purposefulness but there was a well-drilled organisation to their off-the-ball shape.

Bright admired the way her teammates linked up together with and without the ball, saying: “We’ve been working really hard to build those connections. After the last game [Friday’s 1-1 draw with Portugal], we wanted to be even more connected.

“To be honest, we spoke about being ‘proper English’ tonight and having that fight and that desire to defend for each other, work hard for each other and be hard to beat. It’s so important in football to be hard to beat first and foremost. It’s a big boost for the group and we’re in a really good place.”Elements of the performance were reminiscent of England’s Euro 2022 quarter-final win over Spain in Brighton, and not merely because Bright momentarily made a dart up front for one attack, a moment that she laughed about afterwards. This time it was only a brief foray rather than a pre-planned tactical surprise.

But what was akin to that extra-time win was that every England player worked tirelessly. Bright had praise, in particular, for her Chelsea teammate Lauren James, whose work rate off the ball was impressive. “Her defensive duties have gone to another level,” Bright said. “She’s really added that to her game. She’s a fantastic player.”

Despite all of that cause for optimism after England’s much-improved team performance against the world champions, Wiegman’s side will not get too carried away, as even the most casual of glances through the highlights will remind everyone that Spain created several excellent chances from which they should have scored.The visitors were missing key players, although so too were England with absentees such as Lauren Hemp, Georgia Stanway and Alex Greenwood. At fulltime, the former England midfielder Izzy Christiansen, who was co-commentating on BBC Radio 5 Live, said: “This is the start of a massive rivalry between two top nations.”

The teams will meet again in Spain in June and perhaps, on Wednesday’s evidence, could face each other in the later stages of the Euros. Hard work lies ahead and England know one game does not fix everything. But they now have the biggest of scalps to provide the morale boost to build on. And if all else fails, they have a new mantra: Be English.

Header image: [Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian]