Football Daily - Women’s Euros: Hannah Hampton on England’s Euro’s Hopes

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Katie Smith speaks to Hannah Hampton ahead of England’s second match of Euro 2025. Hear what she made of her first match in a major tournament, and her outlook on England’s future in the competition ahead of Netherlands on Wednesday. Former England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley joins Katie as they assess England’s chances of success against Netherlands. Plus, hear from Georgia Stanway on her thoughts about how the camp reacted to Saturday’s defeat, and how they’re looking ahead to the next match.TIME CODES: 02.55 – Hannah Hampton 18.20 – Georgia Stanway

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. deal ratings and price history. So you know a great deal when you see one. That's cargurus.ca. Welcome to the Inside Track with me, Rick Edwards. This is the podcast that takes you inside Formula One like never before. And I'm Matt Magindy. And thanks to my exclusive access, I'll be getting up close and personal with Red Bull Racing this season. This week we address the Verstappen Mercedes rumours. You want to be with the very best car next season. And look forward to the British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton loves Silverstone. He does. Could he challenge? Experience Formula One like never before by tuning into the inside track wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome along to the Football Daily Podcast here in Switzerland where two days have passed

since opening losses for England and Wales at the Women's Euros and we are just two days have passed since opening losses for England and Wales at the Women's Euros and we are just two days out from some crunch matches now in Group D. England taking on the Netherlands and Wales will face France. And with me now, England's former keeper Karen Barsey, welcome to Switzerland. Karen, you arrived in last night. I did. Thank you. It's great to be here and I brought the weather. Yeah, the weather is awful. Slightly reflective maybe of the mood that the home nations find themselves in group D. So we're in that sort of weird midpoint as I said two days past, two days to go. How much is it about now reframing the narrative, less about dwelling, more about looking forward? Yeah, obviously you

have to put the performances behind you especially if the result is a negative one as it was obviously against France and I think you have that time as a team to kind of decompress and go over things and make sure that you just leave it all behind and it's all about refocusing on the Netherlands which is obviously clearly a very very important game for England in my opinion one that you really need to get that result. What concerned you the most about the performance against France would you say? It's a tough one really because I think there's quite a few things that were quite concerning to be honest. I'll try to summarize it quickly but I think just some key players weren't quite

at the level that they needed to be. I think positionally, I think in possession, I think the team were quite sloppy and loose in their passing. Just very uncharacteristic performances I think in possession, I think the team were quite sloppy and loose in their passing. It's just very uncharacteristic performances, I think, in the midfield, not being able to kind of physically compete as well. But yeah, I think we really need to find a way to be more dynamic in our buildup play because it looks like conventionally going through Kira Walsh is a bit too easy to kind of prevent. So we need to think of a different way to kind of progress the ball through the midfield.

And we are gonna hear from Georgia Stanway in a little bit on the football daily, some interesting thoughts from her actually individually, but they've been talking, I think the whole group collectively as well about disappointing performances. But I've actually just got back from the the Dolder Grand Hotel, Karen, which is where England are based just outside Zurich.

Stunning. We've got to get you up there. It is gorgeous. The view across the city sounds very fancy. It's very you should see the type of cars that are pulling in there for the rest of the guests because other people are staying there as well. But I caught up with England number one, Hannah Hampton, this afternoon to get her take on that result and get the perspective leading into that crucial Netherlands game and also to talk to her about the fact that she was playing major tournament football for the first time in her career. So here she is.

Yeah, it was nice. It was lovely. I don't think I really thought about that, to be honest. Really? Really, I think, yeah, I didn't wanna think too much. I just wanted to go out and have a nice game of football, like enjoy myself and not put the extra pressure on that.

I know people are already trying to put on you and just do what I do best. I suppose because you're so used to big moments playing for your club, you've had big moments for your country already. So was it very much heading the mission job to be done? Yeah, pretty much. We all knew what we wanted to achieve. Yeah, we didn't do that. But hey, we've got two more games to put it right

and get ourselves out of that group. One of the best things for us on Saturday in Zurich was where our commentary position was. We actually were really close to the friends and families of the players. Oh yeah. It's quite fun watching, seeing who's there, everyone gets really involved. So who did you have watching you? I just had a couple of friends and families of the players. And it's quite fun watching, seeing who's there, everyone gets really involved.

So who did you have watching you? I just had a couple of friends and family out. So it was nice. You always look for the friends and family bit and everyone, all the players chat to each other before the game, go, oh, your family's here. I've seen your brother, your sister's here. So no, it's nice that all the friends and family

are really close together and us as a team, we're close together and you really feel the connection between us all. So a 2-1 loss to France to start the tournament as we've said of course not what England won. How do you personally reset after a result like that? For me it's just get yourself back on the pitch, put things right that went wrong. As a group we were all very much had the same intentions we wanted to just get back out there get the review meeting done as quick as possible because we knew that we were nowhere near our top game and in tournament football you can't always be I don't know be sloppy or or not be at

the best but we've got the two games to put it right and as soon as that final went everyone just wanted to get back on the pitch and show everyone what the lionesses are actually capable of. Is that sometimes the hard thing that you want to get out there and rectify it straight away, but you now do have to take a couple of days to reflect and recover? Yeah, but at the same time I think everyone needs to just reset. You could see how difficult the game was at times for everyone. So yeah, the game didn't just come at the right time, as people would say, but you know, it's football. It's a game of 90 minutes in group stages and anyone can take it. We knew France were a top side

or so are we. So it was everyone's game on the day and France had it the other day. But we've got Netherlands and Wales to put it right now. Why do you think England is struggling a bit with consistency in games? Because even, you know, you look through fixtures from 2025, a difficult draw against Portugal, then a win against the world champion Spain. I just wonder if there's anything that you've been pinpointing as a group? There's not really anything. I think in the Nations League we were trying different things, which is probably why people kept questioning why performances kept varying between one game to the next. We just wanted to try different things, see if it would be beneficial because you never know what situation you're going to be putting in tournaments like we have been already. So the fact that we've been able to already gain experiences from previous games that we've played. We can use it now when it gets tough.

But in previous tournaments, England have lost the first game to France in the group stage, and yet we still managed to progress out the group. So you never know what happens in tournament. Well, like I said, it's a game of 90 minutes each time. So results can swing either way. Well, even last year in qualifying, went down against France, came back, had an almighty response. So when crunch time comes for England there is that really impressive bounce back mentality that a lot of people I think have commented on. So is that something as a group

that you vocalise, that you think about? Is that something for you that's important? I mean let's be honest it's just traditional English people we like making it hard for ourselves don't we really? So we've just done that this time around, but you know, we'll always bounce back. We're English. We always find ways to win and find ways to improve. So yeah, we'll definitely be putting things right in the next game, that's for sure. In some ways, does it just feel like knockout football has started a bit sooner in the tournament

because now it is a must win? Definitely. I think obviously the finals on the 27th but our final starts on Wednesday and we've just got to win that game and then the game after that's another final because we've got to then definitely win that game to get out and then obviously like you said then it's knockout football so for sure we know what what could happen on Wednesday night if the result doesn't go our way then like you say it's not cat football already so yeah we make it hard for ourselves but we're definitely we know how to get ourselves out of it. Do you relish those kinds of situations

Hannah? I do but I think just being English we do let's be honest I think we like I've said we make it hard we like to fight for a win and yeah we weren't able to get that the other day but the last 10 minutes we put a lot of pressure on on France and they drop deeper and deeper so we just have to do that for the for the full 90 minutes this time around we know that already and yeah we we'll be able to get a result out of that game. How important could this be not just about ability on Wednesday but about mentality? Yeah massive obviously mentality plays a lot of comes in football games, but I think at the same time you want to be Mentally there, but as a team we want to stick together

I think it's very easy in tough situations to be very individual You see that in other teams But we definitely don't want that creeping into any anywhere near us and it's not gonna we're very tiny group on and off that pitch So we'll get each other through those hard times whether they're struggling to enjoy the game for a period of time we'll get them out of it and we need everyone on that day to get us the result that we need whether that's a starter player or a non-starter or as a sub who comes on. Now something we've been trying to do while we're here in Switzerland is bring the fans closer to the Lionesses so we've been doing ask me anything

the fans have been getting in touch with their questions. So we're going to throw a couple your way. You ready? So first one, what is better for you as a keeper, keeping a clean sheet or saving penalties in a shootout? No, clean sheet. I don't want to get it to a penalty shootout. Yeah.

Just give me nothing in the game. Right. We often hear players have superstitions around their boots, you know, put one on before the other. Have you got anything with your gloves? No, I'm not really a superstitious person. I think the only thing that I really do, not meaning to, it's not a superstition, is I'm just, Serena always tells me to put my shirt on so that all the staff can come in because it takes that long to get ready. It's not a superstition, it just always happens.

Just bad time keeping. Basically, yeah. What's your proudest moment in a Lioness's shirt so far? Probably make my debut. Not many people can say that they play for England. So yeah, that's a special moment and for it to be against Spain where I started my career was even special. What's the weirdest thing anyone has ever yelled at you on the pitch?

One of your teammates, not just in the crowd. There's been a few things. yelled at you on the pitch, one of your teammates, not just in the crowd. There's been a few things. I don't know, there's definitely been some weird things that have been said and I've just laughed my head off at them. Then we come back at the end of the game and we just like have an absolute hysterical laugh between one another. But I wouldn't know actually. That's tough. Bronzy says a few things during games at club. I'm guessing some of them you can't repeat. Yeah, no, yeah most I can't repeat. Okay, what about this one? I really like this. They said, I read a very interesting article about Hannah about your journey and eyesight and how the hospital changed everything for you. Sounds incredible.

Do you ever miss scoring goals or could you have made it as a striker? Oh yeah, I miss it. All I know was when I played my first gaming goal because the actual keeper got injured. After that game, I got scouted for England when I was 12 and the week after, I went back to my normal position as striker and got scouted again for England as a striker and I just had to pick and I don't know why I picked goalkeeper, I really don't.

Just spur of the moment. Just, well, to be honest, when I was 12, I genuinely thought goalkeeper, I really don't. Just spur of the moment? Well, to be honest, when I was 12, I genuinely thought, oh, I can just play in goal for England for the first bit and then I can change to a striker because I want to still play striker at club. So I had it like best of both worlds, I could do both. And then I realized the older I got, the less I could do that. And I was like, right, I'm already in the England setup as a keeper, I can't now go strike it. And I was just like, I got confused. Basically, I got confused. Well, it's going pretty well now.

I mean, yeah, it's going great now, but I do miss scoring goals, I can't lie. Right, last one. Any non-football highlights from your time in Switzerland so far? Oh, yeah, as a group, we went, a few of us went swimming in the lakes. It's great, isn't it? So nice.

So easy to get into as well. Isn't it? So we went down to like the diving board bit. None of us went on that diving board. Jeez. But you weren't allowed, Serena's saying no to that. One, I bet we weren't allowed, but two, I think everyone was scared of how high it was.

So none of us went on that. But we walked down the steps on the rocks. Yeah. So we were like, oh my goodness, like, be careful. And then there was like a pontoon in the middle of the lake that we just all swam to and just sat on it and sunbathed for a bit. It's gorgeous, isn't it? And that was lovely.

Well, best of luck this week, of course. And, and we'll speak to you soon, Hannah. Thank you very much. So that was Hannah Hampton talking to me a little bit earlier at England's Basecamp. I mean, loads that we could get stuck into there, Karen, I suppose firstly, I'd love to know your opinion on her performance, on her major tournament debut.

We can't forget what a big moment that was for her individually. Yeah, I think sometimes we don't take enough time to kind of actually reflect on the fact that she's still quite young. She has had a lot of success recently at Chelsea, but yes, this is still a major tournament debut debut so I think you always have to kind of consider the emotion of the occasion and how she handled that and to be fair I think on the whole I

think her performance was good particularly when she had the ball at her feet when she was in possession I think there were a few nerdy looking moments when the defense opened up and you know France were in there was that obviously that angled shot that she managed to get one hand to but looked like perhaps she was a little bit on set when she made the initial save and the ball kind of went beyond her a little bit she managed to just prevent it going over the goal line fortunately but I actually think in possession like her passing

was very, very good. Distribution. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. According to what we heard after the game as well in terms of the game plan, a lot of out balls were going to be played over the press. And I think she managed to find the full backs getting forward quite well at times. And I think there was a time as well where she probably could have played a bit higher and almost played as a third centre-back with Lucy Bronze going forward and I think her pass completion and accuracy was quite good, probably better than some of the outfield players if I'm being brutally honest. So I was

quite proud of her from that perspective and I think it's a big moment for her but yeah ultimately we spoke about the experience of the players in front of her. It probably didn't instill her with a lot of confidence in the way that was kind of going after the initial 15 to 20 minutes. Does that translate back to a goalkeeper? I think you would feel that, especially if you're quite young and you kind of go, okay, like you're thinking to yourself, I need to be the one that steps up, I need to be the one that's resolute, and I think that will be hopefully the next iteration of her development that we see. And then, you know the stable stabilization of that back four has to be the priority I think going

into the Netherlands. So I spoke to her there about that knockout football mentality because in pretty much every way that game against the Netherlands is must-win for England and she said our first final is on Wednesday which is quite a good way to look at it I guess but I wonder from your perspective England have in the last few years been good at knockout football reaching the final of the World Cup reaching the final of the Euros winning the Euros so do you think this could actually be quite a good scenario for England to find themselves in backs against the wall maybe we'll see the best that the Lionesses have to offer. Yeah, we've seen a lot of messages

come out of the England camp that they are better, you know, with their backs against the wall. You know, there have been examples of that in the past. You know, I think of World Cup 2023 immediately. And I think of that game Spain against Japan, when Japan actually, you know, put on this transitional masterclass and scored four goals. And that was in the group stages, wasn't it? Yeah, left Spain ultimately and the rest of the world speechless. Japan ended up going through first in the group, Spain second, and then obviously we

all know what happened in Spain going to win the World Cup. So I mean, that's a more recent example, I think, but in our history, in our heritage, I think I was a part of that team that played in 2015 that lost that opening game against France. And I think, you know, those are one of those, that was one of those moments for me where perhaps the occasion got to me a little bit. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect.

And I think that kind of made me play with a little bit of anxiety that didn't make me as fluid as I would have liked to have been in my goalkeeping. And I didn't get in line with the shot from Les Sommers. I still remember it to this day. It's got some PTSD. And something that was pretty manageable ended up being quite difficult for us.

But I think ultimately, you have to put yourself in a situation where you can draw a line in the sand. Think of this mentality. You're just going to have to go for us. But I think ultimately you have to put yourself in a situation where you can draw a line in the sand. Think of this mentality, you know, you're just gonna have to go for it. Worst case scenario is that you lose. So what can you do to enable that not to happen? And I think that's where they are right now. Because it does seem like quite deliberate messaging

from England. It sounds like it came from Lucy Bronze first. Well, we lost the group game against France in 2015 and look, we made it through to the semi-finals. Now every England player has picked up on that. I've heard it from several of them since then. But is that because there is that sort of, it's the reframing of it, right?

I think you have to, in a sense. And it's reminding recent fans that actually that can happen and you can still get success. I think mindset is so important and mentality is so important particularly in tournament football because you have to be able to find a way to a park what's happened but also reframe it in a way that you feel more confident going forward. So I remember what I had to do and I basically just like vented all my frustration about my performance to one of the staff members and I was like

right just emotionally exhausted by the end of it and went right okay this is Vented all my frustration about my performance to one of the staff members and I was like right Just emotionally exhausted by the end of it and went right. Okay, this is what I have to do Let's keep it simple. Let's just go for it. Don't think about any like regrets that you might have You know as long as you just do your best. That's all you can do and fortunately we managed to get through, you know, the Mexico game got to the Columbia game and Then you could feel like some momentum was building and then you get through to the knockouts and then you beat Norway for the first time. That was our first knockout game that we had ever won in a major tournament. And then it really started to feel like something special was happening.

So we'd changed the course of history. And obviously the recent Lionesses have had so much success lately. What does that look like for them? And because of that success, it feels like anything less than reaching a final feels like a failure. Now, there's a lot of context to that comment, you know, around the changes of personnel, etc. But whoever has the best team, whoever has the best mentality, whoever has the most belief

and who can play with all of their best players at the highest possible level in the most dangerous parts of the pitch, they're the ones that are going to win. So we've heard from Hannah Hampton then. Georgia Stanway, we're going to hear from now, also spoke to the media. She had a press conference a little bit earlier. I think you are allowed that time after the game. you're allowed the time to be able to be disappointed to look at yourself and then the day after it was more about working on what we can do as a whole team and yeah we had good conversations, good meetings and we watched clips on how we can do it and then I think the day after the game as soon as you get on that grass you kind

of forget about everything that's happened. I had a message from somebody that I knew and it was like it's just like a bad night out and you want to forget it as much as possible and move on to the next one and so yeah that is exactly what we're going to do. What do you and the players need to do, the rest of the squad need to do differently against the Netherlands than you did against France? There's different individuals obviously we know the quality that the Netherlands have got and yeah we are facing a completely

different opposition I think if we look at Netherlands they play a lot of midfielders and so maybe they're more likely to come inside than they are to go outside I don't know if that's going to be the case obviously you don't know until the game but yeah they play a lot of midfield players which is going to overload the central areas and so yeah I guess we just have to see what the game brings. But in terms of what we can control I think of course we want to be better on the ball but we can control our mentality going into it and we can control our emotions on the pitch. I think we need to demand more from each other, we need to communicate in those moments and

communication isn't just about speaking but it's about action. Like I said if you put a tough tackle in or if somebody's doing the run for you or if somebody's running back or pressing forward, those are the little triggers that we can almost use as catalyst moments. There's a really horrible scenario that if England were to lose against the Netherlands and then Wales were to lose to France, that you both go out. That's not something I guess you want to contemplate though. It's reality if we're not good enough on Wednesday then we don't deserve to continue in the tournament. Well it's really hard-hitting stuff I mean it's like a mic drop moment there from Georgia's Stanwy but it

resonates it's powerful it's quite hard to hear someone say that actually Karen. Yeah it certainly was that got a definite gasp from me I think when I when I heard that for the first time, to actually hear that verbalized from a player. If that is the reality of the situation, they don't get the result that they need and they are out. It's true. That will be because they haven't been good enough and that performance against France wasn't at the level that it needed to be at. It's a difficult thing for me to hear personally because I think just

you know, you know the talent that's in the squad, you know these girls are amazing human beings and you know how hard that they've worked in the background and you know for it just kind of not to come together when it needs to in the most important moment would be really devastating for me personally to see these girls suffer in that way but let's hope that doesn't happen. Something else I'd picked out that she said, we didn't hear it in the clip there, but just a quote from her, we want to be proper England again.

And I think Hannah Hampton kind of alluded to that, like we're English, sometimes we do it the hard way, but we get it done. So I think even if Stanway is laying it out in very black and white terms there, and I can totally understand why you find that hard to hear because I think we've seen them achieve so much like you say we know the talent there, but There's still that belief I think from them from what I'm gathering that they do genuinely think they can do this

I think intrinsically they know that they're so much better than the performance that we saw against France now It just they just need to prove it. They just need to back themselves and go for it. And I personally feel like they are capable of doing it if they can bring out the quality in the right moments, if they stick to the game plan, if the right players are selected in the right positions at the right time. And those types of things kind of go their way. But I think Leah Williamson actually mentioned it earlier in the season as well about a proper England performance, you know, like the hard tackling, the slide tackles that we're used

to seeing, and those are the things that were, in my opinion, missing in that game against France, the things that you're used to seeing from Georgia's Danway. You know, it was good to see when Grace Clinson came on and obviously added that physicality as well when Tooney looked like she came on and was trying to take the game by the scruff of the neck, albeit with not much time left. What was for me the most exciting thing is to see playing with two strikers, Michelle Agerin coming on and shifting to a formation that was probably better suited to the players that were on the pitch at that moment in time

and to go direct and be a threat. That was probably the most exciting part of the game for me to see them try to pull themselves back. But yeah, there clearly wasn't enough time. But that fight is what I wanna see throughout the 90 minutes. When things get tough, you're in that camp. You need to know that everyone on the team playing or not has your back and that you're gonna go into

battle together and I'm sure I'm sure that's in the group. It's big it's so so big and it's getting pretty nervy as well you can sort of feel it starting to brew here in Switzerland so as we said two days away from England against the Netherlands France against Wales it could all be over by the end of Wednesday night or it could just be beginning. Those are the stakes we are talking about in Group D. Karen, thank you so much for your company. We're going to be back on Tuesday interviewing Serena Vigman. We'll get her thoughts ahead of the big one and we'll be talking to another England player as well. So we will see you next time. Thanks for having me.

Welcome to the Inside Track with me, Rick Edwards. This is the podcast that takes you inside Formula One like never before. I'm Matt Magindy and thanks to my exclusive access, I'll be getting up close and personal with Red Bull Racing this season. This week we address the Verstappen Mercedes-Benz Rumours. You want to be with the very best car next season. And look forward to the British Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton loves Silverstone. He does. Could he challenge?

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