Throughout Euro 2025, Lionesses legend Jordan Nobbs will be writing exclusively for The i Paper. Nobbs was part of England’s last World Cup squad and has won 71 caps, winning England Player of the Year in 2016 and the Finalissima in 2023. She is also the WSL’s record appearance holder.
Naturally, England will be disappointed with the defeat to France because whenever you put that shirt on, you want to perform and you want to win. But with the Lionesses, you know there’s more to come – they’re only going to get better from that game and push themselves to the next level.
It’s just about them believing in themselves – it’s not over yet. They’ve got a big game coming up against the Netherlands where they can show what they can do.
England started well, the offside for Alessia Russo’s disallowed goal was the most minimal offside you’ve ever seen. That was when the momentum changed and France had a lifeline and then played really well, winning first and second balls, attacking the wide areas and getting lots of crosses in the box and that stunned the Lionesses a little bit.
It showed how hard Group D is. You can’t have a bad 20 minutes against these teams because they’re top, top players that can capitalise on that. It is tough going against a French team that probably surprised everyone a little bit, they had that ability and speed up front that would have been difficult for any team to face.
The last 10 minutes, it was the England we’re used to seeing, front-footed, creating chances, they had that fight. They will still take a lot of positives because it’s tournament football and just because you lose your first game, it doesn’t mean it’s all gone.
A lot of the players have played in pressure environments, I think 10 of them in the squad played in the Euros final in 2022. They’ll want to analyse what they need to do better and go back to getting the basics right. It was the first time I saw England not have as much of the ball, they lost the ball in some key areas and that’s not really like them.
They were losing the physical battle so I think they will be the main things they want to change and if there are a few tweaks to the line up, when you look at that squad, they have enough players to compete with the best in the world.
Because it’s such a rare occasion that the Lionesses lose, that brings more media attention, but actually it was a top French team. Yes, there were parts of the game that they can’t do in the next game because they could be out of the tournament but they’ve got to take some positives from the last 10 minutes and prove they’re holders of that trophy for a reason.
Whenever you lose a game in a tournament, there’s that scrutiny. It’s easy for everyone to pick out the negatives but it’s about you staying in your football bubble because you know what the squad and the staff collectively can do together.
That’s the good and bad of the sport, you’re going to get praised when you do well and analysed when things go wrong. You have to accept that and take it on the chin because it’s about performing at the highest level and those girls won’t want to lose that trophy that they’ve got.
Next up it’s the Netherlands. They showed a lot of quality in their game against Wales. Vivianne Miedema’s goal was trademark Viv. I played with her at Arsenal and the amount of times she would do that in training where she goes to shoot, chops it, goes to shoot, chops it, hits it whether with her right foot or left foot. It’s no surprise on a world stage that she’s putting in a goal like that.
They’ve got a very strong midfield with Jill Roord and Danielle van de Donk. They’ve both played in the WSL so they’re players that England know, which is always helpful when you’ve played against them or played with them you know their style of play. Their forward line is the big threat – they’re very interchangeable, they’re good on the ball and they’re all goalscorers.
Wales had a few chances where they put a few crosses in the box and just didn’t have the numbers, whereas I think the Lionesses will have more bodies higher up the pitch. So if they create those chances and utilise the wide areas, that’s where the Lionesses will show their quality.
It’s a short turnaround and I do believe if they go with the right mentality they can beat a team like the Netherlands. We’re all rooting for them.
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