Sarina Wiegman?s side delivered a warning shot to the rest in Zurich ? the reigning champions will not go quietly
What was all the fuss about? On Saturday night England were staring into the abyss after a largely flat, listless defeat against France. Now their Euro 2025 campaign is up and running, a dominant dispatching of the Netherlands giving them a foot in the quarter-finals. This was a warning shot to the rest; a clear message that the reigning champions will not fade into the night. Originally billed as a knife-edge contest between close rivals, the tie turned into a 4-0 rout under an azure Zurich sky.
It was some way to banish the clouds that had begun to form over England and their manager, Sarina Wiegman. She has won the European Championship with both of the countries on show in this fixture, but questions were asked of her decisions after England?s opening-night flop. In their evolving iterations, the Lionesses have barely missed a beat at major tournaments in the past decade. For the first time during this sport?s boom years, misgivings were growing in volume. They knew that losing again could mean an early flight home, a first group-stage exit of any kind since 2013 and an unprecedented barrage of criticism.
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