England 3-2 Netherlands (Stanway 58’, Hemp 60’, Toone 90+1 | Beerensteyn 12’, 35’)
WEMBLEY – If the Lionesses are yet to be seen in Paris next summer, they may not be found sipping hot chocolates besides the Arc de Triomphe and strolling down the Champs-Elysees. The Olympic dream is not dead yet.
Ella Toone’s 90th-minute winner capped a remarkable turnaround – England’s greatest under Sarina Wiegman – as for the first time in her reign, they came from two goals down to beat the Netherlands and keep their hopes of Nations League qualification alive, depending on results in the final match day.
A break from the hamster wheel, and avoiding a third successive summer of tournament football, may not necessarily have been the worst outcome, but even better is the new-found resilience that England have snatched from the jaws of adversity.
In their reactions to all three of their goals was a self-awareness that the last few months have not been good enough. Georgia Stanway marked her header without celebration, stony-faced and staring resolutely at the turf. Lauren Hemp’s curled effort brought a cry of relief, and Toone’s composed finish finally prompted the Wembley roar that has become so familiar to the European champions. It is now one they can no longer take for granted.
Indeed the scripts no longer write themselves. None of this went how it was supposed to – yet somehow, in two moments of defensive calamity as the Dutch surged ahead, it felt as if it was never going to be any other way. By the time Jess Carter and Lucy Bronze had collided, they were only to look up and find Lineth Beerensteyn glaring back at them, readying herself to finish past Mary Earps. The boos were perfunctory, aimless. In reply, one Dutch fan clad comically well for the occasion clutched a giant pair of golden clogs, roaring into an icy Wembley night.
For Earps, Women’s Footballer of the Year and England’s captain on the night, the second was humiliation. While she endured the screams of Alex Greenwood as she let Beerensteyn’s tepid shot slip through her hands, the fault was not hers alone. Keira Walsh should never have been caught on the ball; Carter should not have scuppered the clearance.
Until now, England’s has been an autumn of “should haves” and as the nation nominated to represent Team GB, they came so close to paying a heavy price.
The chaos was fun – the injustices will linger. Hemp had forced a save from Daphne van Domselaar and a goal-kick was awarded instead of a corner, moments before the first Netherlands goal. Worse still, Beerensteyn was offside in the build-up to the second.
The reality is that whatever the finer details, the determination to reach Paris 2024 should not be downplayed. It says a lot that Wiegman delayed taking up the England job in 2021 because she could not forsake the chance to lead her native Netherlands to the Tokyo edition.
It would have been particularly cruel if her own nation had put an end to England’s hopes on Friday night – but in do or die territory, she pulled it out the beg. There had been an admission that something needed fixing. Alessia Russo was dropped, Hemp was installed at No 9, and Niamh Charles took Rachel Daly’s place at left-back.
There is still a trip to Scotland on Tuesday, who will want to avoid the embarrassment of Nations League relegation. England are still evidently not at their best and on a night of such bewilderment at both ends, it is hard to recall their European Championship triumph here 18 months ago.
Comfort still comes in the memories of those happier times here on the fringes of north London, and in the return of Beth Mead, making her first international appearance since the ACL rupture that forced her to miss the World Cup. And for England, as it has been for Mead, the comeback was even sweeter than the setback.
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