It's now or NETHER if Sarina's Lionesses want to stay in Euros

HOLDERS England realistically have to beat the Netherlands in the women's Euro finals Group D tomorrow teatime (5pm BBC1), or they will face having to head home after what would then be a meaningless game with Wales on Sunday.

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The Lionesses met more than their match against inform France on Saturday night in Zurich, going down 2-1, although England's goal came in the 87th minute.

England did have a 'goal' disallowed in the 15th minute by VAR on a very narrow offside decision. However, France were the better side.

England will have to improve a lot to overcome the Netherlands, who had beaten Wales 3-0 earlier on Saturday.

If, as we hope, England win tomorrow they should take care of Wales, who you would expect to lose to France tomorrow night.

There is a lot of stake for English women's football which increased its popularity after the Lionesses triumphed in the previous competition.

An early exit would also be bad news for the two UK TV channels covering the competition - BBC and ITV - who are scheduled to cover all the matches live between them.

Wales do not look at all likely to qualify so the general interest would be England, especially for ITV who would need the ratings to keep their advertisers happy!

The late efforts for an equaliser on Saturday could not disguise England's disappointing performance, even allowing for Frances talented players. This was head coach Sarina Wiegman's first Euro match defeat in 13 games with England and her previous job with the Netherlands.

What struck me was France outpacing England, with former Birmingham City defender, Warwick born Jess Carter, for instance, being beaten at left back.