Early loss vs France brought team together: England coach Wiegman

If England's opening loss to France at Euro 2025 was a cause for concern, coach Sarina Wiegman said being faced with a huge challenge right out of the gate might have been a blessing in disguise for the reigning champions.

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Wiegman's team bounced back to beat the Netherlands 4-0 in a must-win match and then thrashed tournament debutants Wales 6-1 on Sunday -- and now ride a confident wave of togetherness into their quarterfinal match against Sweden.

"We didn't have a good start against France, but that gave us also the urgency to fix, to do things better as a team on the pitch, getting the connections better," Wiegman said. "With that loss, the urgency came.

"The team really responded well on that, and now hopefully we can show that again against Sweden. We built momentum also from the France game, because that really brought us together."

Sweden, who lost to England in the semifinals at Euro 2022, were barely challenged in this year's group stage, winning all three of their games by a combined score of 8-1.

England finished second in their group, which means, provided they get past Sweden in the quarters, they will avoid world champions Spain in the semifinals.

Wiegman played down the idea that England may have benefited by not winning the group.