James scores super brace as England switch on at Euros

This was what Georgia Stanway meant by “proper England”. This is why the squad keep saying those two words, as even Sarina Wiegman revealed after the game.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

It isn’t necessarily a description, or any kind of old-fashioned appeal to the past. It’s a mantra, a standard. It’s about high intensity, not letting levels drop, and making sure the opposition feel the burn right until the very end of a game.

That was certainly true of the Netherlands, in a 4-0 defeat that might indeed prove a proper turning point in this entire Euro 2025 campaign. The defending champions have finally arrived, securing the tournament’s biggest win in any match that doesn’t feature Spain. That it was against a team as fancied as the Dutch, and with all of the storylines that were supposed to give this fixture such an edge, makes it all the more admirable.

This, amid so many words, is an appropriate statement. The revelation of a proper England has certainly washed away words like “elimination”, and ignored the possibility of becoming the first ever champions to be knocked out in the group stage. Similarly, the only humiliation here was endured by the Netherlands. By the early minutes of the second half, and Lauren James’s second goal, it seemed preposterous to think that the Dutch were considered England’s peers or that they might actually subject Wiegman’s team to the threat of elimination. They couldn’t get close.

What a way to blow away doubts. They went with James’s emphatic first strike, as England’s star had her own arrival performance at the Euros, blowing away any doubts about her role in the squad, too.

It’s hard not to feel that the two are linked, which is where “proper England” might even take on a deeper meaning.

While Wiegman’s general approach is always to adapt tactics to the opposition, she has clearly figured out a core formation that works. She has something proper there.