'No excuse' for England defeat to France - Hemp

ZURICH -- Lauren Hemp said the lack of match time for several of England's players is no excuse for their poor start to Euro 2025 after they fell to France 2-1 on Saturday in Zurich.

England were outplayed for much of the match against France and now face a tournament-defining game against the Netherlands on Wednesday. England know that if they lose again, then the defence of their European Championship crown is over.

Hemp said the team must work on the "quality of possession" after they made "mistake after mistake" against France. It was an uncharacteristic performance from England, who made several errors with France punishing any defensive lapses.

Hemp was one of four players in the starting line-up who has battled back from injury to make the Euro 2025 squad. She underwent knee surgery in November and returned in April, while her Manchester City teammate Alex Greenwood was out from December to April with a MCL injury. Georgia Stanway was sidelined from January to May with a knee injury while Lauren James made her comeback from a hamstring injury in their 7-0 win over Jamaica last Sunday having been out since April.

But Hemp said that lack of match time is not the reason England failed to find their rhythm against France. "I mean a lot of us have had a big amount of time out and that's obviously been gutting for us," Hemp said. "I have missed most of the season, but we've also had four or five games to get up to scratch and I think it's no excuse really.

"We're all in this as a team and we've got so much experience on the pitch even though I've been out for seven months, also played six years of my career. It's important to remember that and take confidence from it. Obviously we're going to be a bit rusty but everyone's going to be a bit rusty so we're all in the same boat, I'd say."

It's now a key few days for England as they prepare to face the Netherlands with the Lionesses effectively in a knockout scenario. Hemp said they will take heart from how they closed out the match against France with Keira Walsh scoring a late consolation goal.

"A lot of the time we thrive under pressure," Hemp said. "From how we acted in the last 10 minutes of the game, we know what's up for stake and we obviously want to get as far as we can. We are reigning champions and that is important to remember and gain confidence from that.

"I love playing and football matches where we need to win, they're the games you wanna be involved in. So yeah, it's important we take confidence from parts of yesterday.

"I think the biggest thing for us to just stick together. I think we stuck together as a team yesterday throughout the whole game and into the final stages and that's what we need to take with us."

And they will come up against a host of familiar faces on Wednesday. Hemp knows several of the Dutch team well with Kerstin Casparij, Jill Roord and Vivianne Miedema all teammates of hers at City last season.

"I mean we know a lot of them are good quality players," Hemp said. "I'm lucky enough to play with some of them in the WSL, and against them as well and so we know like their strengths and weaknesses and we're going to definitely work on that going into the next few days."