Proper England' Stanway urges Lionesses to go back to roots for crunch clash

Georgia Stanway wants the Lionesses to go back to their roots and be "proper England" as they prepare to face the Netherlands at Euro 2025 after their opening defeat by France.

- Suzanne Wrack

"We know as a team that we underperformed. We know as individuals that we underperformed," Stanway said. "I didn't want to do the press conference today because I'm fed up of talking now. It's time that we focus on putting things right on the grass.

"We're all just dying for the game to come round because we want to make sure we're stepping on that pitch knowing what we've experienced but also wanting to make a change. We've spoken about wanting to be 'proper England'; we want to go back to what we're good at, we want to go back to a traditional style of football in terms of tough tackles, getting back to our roots and remembering why we're here, remembering we're playing for the little girl that wanted to be here."