Ella Toone has no doubts that England can bounce back from their first defeat at Euro 2025, with the Manchester United star eager to get back on track after a shock loss to France.
The Lionesses have dug themselves a hole at Euro 2025 after losing 2-1 to France in the first Group D game, but they aren’t out of the competition just yet.
Uphill battle for Lionesses
A win for England against the Netherlands on matchday 2 would immediately put them back into contention for the Euros and the players are fully confident they can recover from a tough start.
Ella Toone spoke about England’s ability to fight on the biggest stage ahead of a huge Netherlands test on Wednesday: “Every game that we go into, we know it’s a big game and we have that belief in the squad that we’ll go on and give our all.
“Every game is big, we prepare for every game the same and we’ll want to make sure that we get the win from that game just as we do every time we step out. There’s no added pressure within the group but we just need to stick together.”
England were disappointing against France but they will feel hard done by after some harsh decisions went against them, with Alessia Russo’s early goal disallowed by a matter of inches for offside.
The Netherlands are certainly no easy proposition for the Lionesses in their second game of the tournament but with Sarina Wiegman’s team looking to retain their title following success in 2022, they will be fuelled with confidence that they can revive their championship.
Ella Toone eager to prove herself
Toone herself was disappointed in the first England game this summer, as despite enjoying a good preparation for the tournament she was dropped from the starting lineup against France.
Two for Toone! ⚽️⚽️
Ella Toone adds a third to the scoreline for our #Lionesses moments before half-time! 👏pic.twitter.com/tq53BHiKXz
— England (@England) June 29, 2025
“It’s hard when you’re not on the pitch yourself,” Toone said. “I’m trying to watch the game from a hard angle so I didn’t really know what was going on on the pitch.
“I knew that if I was given a chance, I had to come on and try and change the game and that was my role tonight.
The Manchester United midfielder came on for Lauren James with just half an hour left in the game, but she made a good impression and could be rotated to start against the Netherlands.
“There were definitely some positives to take from the game so it’s not all negative.” Toone continued. “We had France hanging on towards the end as well and that just shows the depth that we have in the squad, people can come on and try and make an impact.”
England’s outright odds took a huge hit following the France defeat and they are now 15/2 to win the competition according to the UK’s best betting sites, but it would be crazy to rule out the defending champions this early.
