England have no excuse for poor start to Euro 2025 – Lauren Hemp

Lauren Hemp has insisted that England’s underwhelming start to Euro 2025 can’t be blamed on players returning from injury, following their 2-1 defeat to France in Zurich on Saturday.

The Lionesses were second-best for much of the match, and now face a must-win clash against the Netherlands on Wednesday to keep their title defence alive.

A second straight loss would eliminate the reigning European champions at the group stage.

Reflecting on the performance, Hemp acknowledged the team lacked sharpness on the ball and paid the price for their sloppiness.

“We must work on the quality of possession,” she said, admitting England made “mistake after mistake” throughout the game.

It was an uncharacteristically error-strewn outing from Sarina Wiegman’s side, with France capitalising on England’s defensive lapses to secure all three points.

Hemp was one of several players in the starting XI who only recently returned from long-term injury.

She missed a large portion of the season after undergoing knee surgery in November, only making her return in April.

Team-mate Alex Greenwood was sidelined with an MCL injury from December to April, Georgia Stanway was out from January to May with a knee issue, and Lauren James made her comeback from a hamstring injury just last week during the 7-0 win over Jamaica.

Lauren James starts for England! 📋

"Any defender better be nervous!" 👊

Lauren Hemp had a lot of praise for her team-mate. pic.twitter.com/87IN2SrHLF

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 5, 2025

Despite this, Hemp refused to attribute England’s poor start to a lack of minutes on the pitch.

“I mean a lot of us have had a big amount of time out and that’s obviously been gutting for us,” she said. “I have missed most of the season, but we’ve also had four or five games to get up to scratch and I think it’s no excuse really.

“We’re all in this as a team and we’ve got so much experience on the pitch even though I’ve been out for seven months, also played six years of my career.

“It’s important to remember that and take confidence from it. Obviously we’re going to be a bit rusty but everyone’s going to be a bit rusty so we’re all in the same boat, I’d say.”

With everything now riding on their clash with the Netherlands, Hemp is confident the team can rise to the occasion. Keira Walsh’s late goal offered a glimmer of hope and belief despite the loss to France.

“A lot of the time we thrive under pressure,” Hemp said. “From how we acted in the last 10 minutes of the game, we know what’s up for stake and we obviously want to get as far as we can. We are reigning champions and that is important to remember and gain confidence from that.

“I love playing and football matches where we need to win, they’re the games you wanna be involved in. So yeah, it’s important we take confidence from parts of yesterday.

“I think the biggest thing for us to just stick together. I think we stuck together as a team yesterday throughout the whole game and into the final stages and that’s what we need to take with us.”

The showdown with the Netherlands will also see Hemp reunited with several familiar faces from her club days. Last season at Manchester City, she shared a dressing room with Dutch internationals Kerstin Casparij, Jill Roord, and Vivianne Miedema.

“I mean we know a lot of them are good quality players,” she said. “I’m lucky enough to play with some of them in the WSL, and against them as well and so we know like their strengths and weaknesses and we’re going to definitely work on that going into the next few days.”

Adblock test (Why?)