England aiming to move on from France loss at Euro 2025: ‘It was like a bad night out you want to forget'

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England aiming to move on from France loss at Euro 2025: 'It was like a bad night out you want to forget'
Georgia Stanway says England are determined to 'put things right' in their second 2025 European Championship match against the Netherlands and move on from the France defeat, which she described as 'like a bad night out'.
England began their European Championship defence with a 2-1 loss to France on Saturday, a result which leaves them facing a group-stage exit if they are beaten by the Netherlands on Wednesday.
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Stanway, 26, conceded the Lionesses 'underperformed' in the opening game and said the team had spoken about returning to basics ahead of the Netherlands match.
'What we want going forward is to make actions and stop talking. Hence why I didn't want to do the press conference today because I'm fed up of talking now,' Stanway told reporters on Monday.
'We want to make sure we put things right on the grass. We want to create action from what happened on Saturday and the only way to do that is in the game on Wednesday. We're all just dying for the game to come round as fast as possible.
'We've spoken about wanting to be proper England and go back to what we're good at and our traditional style of football in terms of tough tackles, getting back down to the roots, remembering why we're here and playing for the little girl that wanted to be here. Sometimes it's about blocking out the noise and getting on the pitch and getting stuck in.
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'The day after the game, as soon as you get on the grass, you forget about everything that happened. I had a message from someone I know that said: 'It is just like a bad night out and you want to forget it as much as possible. Move onto the next one'. That's exactly what we're going to do.'
Head coach Sarina Wiegman was critical of England's decision-making during the loss to France and Stanway, who admitted she was 'disappointed' by her own display, highlighted the need to improve in possession ahead of the Netherlands game.
'For some reason I couldn't do the things I wanted to do in possession, especially,' the midfielder, who had knee surgery in January that ruled her out of the second half of the season, said of her performance. 'That's why I knew I just had to run around, put some tackles in. My way of communicating is if I can't do something on the ball, I'll work my socks off to show I can do things off the ball.'
Asked what England need to do differently, Stanway replied: 'We want to be better on the ball and we can control our mentality and emotions on the pitch. We need to demand more from each other and communicate in those moments.
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'Communication isn't just about speaking, but about action. If you put a tough tackle in, somebody's making a run for you or running back or pressing forward, those are the little triggers that we can use as catalyst moments.'
England face the Netherlands in Zurich on Wednesday and conclude their group-stage campaign against Wales on Sunday.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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