Latest news with #Lauren James
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How to watch England vs Spain: TV channel and live stream for Euro 2025 final today
Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses are one win away from becoming the first England side to retain a major title, but will face their toughest challenge of the summer in tonight's final. They will go toe to toe with world champions Spain with the trophy on the line. England go into the match as underdogs after coming from behind to win in both the quarter-final and semi-final, both of which required extra time. They will be boosted in the final, though, by the return of Lauren James, fit again after suffering an ankle issue in the semi-final. Spain had a considerably tougher route to the final, facing Switzerland and Germany in their knockout matches. Aitana Bonmati scored the only goal as La Roja edged past Die Mannschaft in the semi-final, just weeks after being hospitalised with meningitis. She will be one to watch in the final, as will Barcelona's Alexia Putellas, widely regarded as one of the greatest women's footballers of all time. Previewing the match, England captain Leah Williamson admitted the Lionesses would need to be at their best: 'Every team is hard to beat and every team poses a different threat and challenge, and we have to stay in it for as long as possible until we can take advantage of it.' Where to watch England vs Spain TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live for free on both BBC One and ITV1. Coverage will start on both channels at 4pm BST ahead of the 5pm kick-off. Live stream: BBC iPlayer and ITVX will each offer a live stream service. Live blog: You can also follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport's live blog!
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
England go from shambles to euphoria as self-belief somehow sees off Sweden
The Letzigrund looks gorgeous under a pale pastel evening sun. The noise washes over the athletic track where Carl Lewis and Asafa Powell once broke the world record, and where Sweden are now flying out of the blocks and leaving England trailing in their dust. We do not yet know that in many ways this is simply the prologue, that this devastating early two-goal flurry is actually relatively benign in comparison with the carnage that will follow. We do not yet know that Lauren James will end up playing almost an hour in a double pivot. We do not yet know that Lucy Bronze will end up wearing the captain's armband on her wrist and kicking a giant credit card advert. Hannah Hampton, nose still unbloodied, has not the faintest inkling that this will end up being the greatest night of her career. But they all know something. Even if they're not entirely conscious of it. Even as an utterly shambolic England trail Sweden 2-0 and the obituaries for their Euro 2025 campaign are being scribbled, there is a little knot of refusal there, a team with an entirely unwarranted calmness at its core, a team that against all the available visual evidence still trusts that everything is going to work out eventually. Which, after half an hour of Swedish dominance, takes a pretty significant leap of faith. Alessia Russo has barely been able to get into the game. Georgia Stanway is manically scurrying around like a dog at a family barbecue. Jess Carter, based on her chasing and pointing and deathly reluctance to touch the ball, is clearly training for a future career as a referee. OK, so you may not have underestimated Sweden. But you may just have overestimated yourselves. And perhaps this was the inevitable outcome of a build-up focused almost entirely on Sweden's directness and physicality, on the need for England to show 'proper English' qualities. There was no clear plan on the ball, and precious little quality in it in any case: an entire team so absorbed by the grapple that they had forgotten to trust in their technical ability. Sweden, meanwhile, have come with an entirely transparent strategy: funnel the ball right, target England's left-back weakness with long balls over the top and in behind, and simply wait to collect your jackpot. England have no runners from deep, no flying full-backs, no real intention to create overloads, and just the same hopeless balls punted up the channels. Even so, they know something. They know the depth they possess on their bench. They know that they have the back three to fall back on, different combinations and angles of attack. They know they have the legs to last 90 minutes and 120 if necessary. And most of all they know they are up against a team already instinctively beginning to entrench themselves, whose tournament history suggests a certain hard-wired frailty that they can prod and exploit, if only they can take this game deep enough. And so the lateness of Sarina Wiegman's substitutions almost a kind of wilful stubbornness, a blind faith that things would eventually come good, in the absence of any corroborating evidence. The vivid patterns of Chloe Kelly transform England's right flank and the fresh legs of Michelle Agyemang offer a new threat alongside Russo. Bronze, by now suffused with main character energy, pops up at the back post to convert Kelly's cross. Less than two minutes later, Agyemang pounces on Kelly's header to level the game. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Even as Sweden survive to extra time, even as they continue to create chances on the counter, there is an almost irresistible momentum building behind England as penalties approach. Even amid the farce and fragility of that penalty shoot-out, it is Sweden who crumble under the pressure while Bronze, Kelly and Hampton hold their nerve. In a way, you could scarcely hope to see a better example of the power of self-branding in tournament football. England have so often turned up with no more elaborate strategy than simply *being England*, making a virtue of doing just enough, simply hanging in there and trusting in their intrinsic pedigree to see them through. It was a strategy that powered a flawed team all the way through the last World Cup final, and may just be good enough to do so again here. It is slightly trite to conclude that great teams win when playing badly. Perhaps the hallmark of certain great teams is in sensing almost subconsciously when they are allowed to play badly and when they are not, when the level needs to be raised, when the stakes are at their sharpest. It will probably be good enough against Italy; it will probably not be good enough against Spain or France. But for now this curate's egg of a team rolls judderingly, thrillingly, onto its next grand climax.
