The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - England bounce back at Euros but Wales can only hope – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Faye Carruthers is joined by Tom Garry, Sophie Downey and Amy Merricks to discuss England’s emphatic win, France’s step closer to the last eight and how Group C reached its climax.

This is The Guardian. A woman wakes up in a hospital having lost 14 years of her memory, only to find she has a 13-year-old daughter. A birthday party turns into a hostage situation. Monuments emerge from the depths of the Amazon. My name is Branca Viana and these are some of the true stories we tell every week on Rádio Novelo Apresenta. The show's in Portuguese, but we have all the episodes transcribed on our website, radionovello.com.br.

Come listen. Hello, I'm Faker Rothers and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Lionesses fans, is everyone okay? Was that actually easier than any of us expected? England live to fight another day after a 4-0 battering of the Netherlands. Tactical tweaks and James at the double C Serena Wiegmann side go second in Group D. Wales are hanging on by a thread despite a Jess Vischlok equaliser. France have a foot in the quarterfinals after a 4-1 victory in St Gallen. And we finally have some predictions right as Germany and Sweden progress to the last eight in Group C. We'll dissect all that plus we'll take your questions and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

What a panel we have today. Tom Garry, how are you? Good morning, Faye. Yes, I'm much happier this morning after last night's England performance. It was one of the great nights to be a reporter on the England women's team, wasn't it? What a fantastic performance from Serena Vihman's team. I put in the group last night. I've never been more grateful for being so terrible at predictions because I thought it was all going to end in disaster. And I'm delighted to say it didn't, as is Soph Downey, no doubt. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Yeah, the Lionesses would have ruined my birthday if they'd lost. So

thank you. Again, literally've we've now discussed your birthday five times and even in the intro I still forgot that it was your birthday. Like this is what an early record does to your brain happy birthday Soph is that a new birthday hat? No this is my red roses hat so of course supporting both England sports. You've decorated the Airbnb with your shirts in the background as well, which looks wonderful. What did you get for your birthday?

I don't actually know yet. Rachel still doesn't speak. Is that because we're recording so early that you haven't even had a chance to open presents? Yes. I'm so sorry. Birmingham City boss, Amy Merricks joins us. It's for the first time, a debut, another debut

taunt. How are you Amy? I'm well thank you. Looking forward to it. Looking forward to talking about the games. Yes, how much have you enjoyed the Euros so far? Yeah, loving it. I think the group stage is unique because you get real diverse opposition and game strategies. So yeah, really loving it and excited now that England have picked it up and back to where they are. Yeah, well, fingers crossed. It's a slightly easier route from now on, but we shall see because it was a lot less stressful, let's put it that way, last night than the France

game. An emphatic win over the Dutch. None of us needed to panic in the end, did we? 4-0 against the Netherlands which surprised everyone I think. It means that progress to the knockouts is now in their control which no one would have thought just a few days ago. A brace from Lauren James, goals for Georgia Stanway and Ella Toon saw the Lionesses finally get their Euro 2025 campaign up and running. It was quite the performance and quite the opposite from their opener. Alessi Russo described it as proper England performance, one where we'll work hard until we can't run anymore. What did you make of it Tom? England were magnificent, Faye, weren't they? They were absolutely magnificent. They've been

talking a lot, we understand, in the dressing room in the last few days about this phrase they use, proper England. Serena Vigman said that the players first sort of coined that phrase after they drew with Portugal in February and then they backed it up by beating Spain at Wembley. And what they mean by this supposedly proper England phrase is intensity, getting stuck in, winning your battles, winning your jewels, sort of working harder than everybody else to make doing everything you can to win and but also being really purposeful on the ball when you've got the ball and sort of combining those two things, that work rate and that purposefulness. And I got to say, I think they epitomized that wonderfully last night. They worked so hard

compared to the French game when there were times when they were being outrun and out battled. This was so different and it was just great to see. One of the reasons why we get so frustrated sometimes reporting on this team is that we know they're capable of fantastic performances like last night. So when we see them, you know, going lose to Belgium and look a little bit lackluster, or when we see them sort of struggling to draw with Portugal, the reason that we're quite critical of the team is because we know they've got this in them and they were absolutely sublime last night. They thoroughly deserved the win. We could talk about the work rate of Russo, the wonderful goals from Lauren James. I also thought Jess Carter was fantastic and overall everybody in England team played well. It was just a great all-round performance from

England. Yeah, it was a great performance. I think Serena Vigman listened to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly the other day because I do believe we suggested those things. I did find her post-match interview with Joe Curry interesting that when Joe put that to her on the BBC she said there were two different games and that she'd picked the starters but she still wouldn't concede that perhaps it wasn't the right thing to have to have done. In Serena we trust, we're back in that again. Let's talk about Lauren James though, so that did make a big difference having her out on the right. What did you make of her performance overall? I think it allowed her to really roam free and

do what she does best because it took her away from maybe the responsibility of being in the centre when yes you're the playmaker, it's the number 10, but you also have to be quite controlled. And I think putting Ella Thunen in that central area, you can see she like just stayed central for a lot of the game. And I think that was just providing cover. Yes, she was supporting out the wings at times, but she was just providing that cover for the midfielders and who were gaining so much space. But Lauren James, she's just a fantastic footballer, isn't she? I mean, I remember seeing her on her debut for Arsenal when she was 16 years old and going, this player is going to be big. You could just see that she had that innate talent in her. And we've known it for a long time. But I

think for her to announce herself on the European stage has been a hard run into this tournament being injured. You know, there has been a race against Time for Fitness and I think that's why we only saw her for 60 minutes and she kind of faded a little bit in the first game is because she'd not played a full match since what, April or March or something like that. So this was her real time to shine. I think she has a real good relationship with Lucy Bronze down that right side as well and it just allowed England because she inverts quite a lot. So she can vary it up from being down that right side or coming in.

And she's that kind of free roamer where she can just be allowed to do what she wants and create what she wants in the ball. And I think the first finish especially was a finish only Lauren James can make. She is, you know, the way that she put that shift into it into space and put it away It was just superb Yeah, I mean it's she the confidence to do that in the first place But I tell you what I just I just love seeing Lauren James playing with a smile on her face And when she came off she just had this huge beam on her face. You don't see that that often

I think she really enjoyed herself. From a coach's point of view, Amy, both these sides and both these managers know each other so well, but it felt like Serena Wigman got her game plan bang on, whereas the Dutch got their tactics all wrong. We talked about Viv Meedemaar can create something from nothing, but she only had eight touches in the first half. You can't create a lot if you don't touch the ball a lot, although we have seen her do that to be fair. But where would you say that this game was won and lost? Yeah, absolutely. I think you're so right there, Faye. England's game plan was perfect. And even there Sophie spoke about Lauren James rolling in. That was because of Brute's defensive

ability. She switches off. That left the spaces for Toon to take that space in behind, which we were more dynamic from the centre midfield area because of Toon being in there. So it worked perfectly. On the flip side of that, Netherlands did not look like the Netherlands against Wales and that's credit to England, but also something wasn't quite right there. I felt like a huge miss, Danielle van der Donk, not being in there, which I shoot myself for saying because I don't like the club she's just signed for, for obvious reasons. However, you know, Hannah Hampton is an excellent distributor with the ball. We all know that. The fact that she could play those passes from the ground, from a goal kick, into the top line,

into space, and it literally slices through everyone in that team. You're thinking, everyone knows Hannah Hampton can do that, right? So, Netherlands went into that player for player press, but it just allowed Hannah Hampton to dictate play from a goal kick, which created two of those goals. I also think the Netherlands really obsessed about trying to hit our left channel due to our frailties in the previous game. But obviously in Serena, we trust she shifted to Greenwood, she shifted to Carter, it protected that side. And we were just, we looked more composed. We looked more compact without the ball. We looked more aggressive. We didn't win enough jewels in the first game and we did that in this game.

Yeah. It looked more balanced, I think as well with Alex Greenwood at left back and Jess Carter looked slightly more comfortable at centre back. It was effective ultimately Tom that change, you highlighted it earlier. Well swapping Jess Carter and Alex Greenwood around in the back line was a really good decision from Serena Vigman, it worked superbly last night. I felt a little bit sorry for Jess Carter in the France game because she plays most of her club matches for Gotham at centre half and at left back she's naturally right footed. You could tell she was really uncomfortable against France coming up against somebody as quality as Delphine Casca, you know, so she looked so much

more at home at centre back and it worked really, really well. I mean, she didn't give me the Mart a sniff all night long. And at the same time, Greenwood being left footed, although I would say Greenwood's best position is centre half. She looked much more comfortable a left back than Carter did and it just worked really well tactically last night. It still enabled Greenwood to do her distribution without England looking quite so vulnerable defensively and I suspect now they have found the back four that they will stick with in that formation for the remainder of the tournament because it was so, so effective. And I think that was something that they've really got right

last night against the Netherlands. My gut feeling is that both players would prefer to be at centre back. Both their positions are better at centre back, whereas where their strengths are in different ways. So, you know, whoever's at left back is slightly out of position, but that they were stronger as are some of their parts last night in that line up. We carved it in the middle and Greenwood on the left. It worked much better and I hope we don't see them swap back in the rest of the campaign. It was completely unexpected, which is maybe doing a massive disservice to the lionesses, but I think because we watched that awful

performance against France, I think it's fair to say that, I think the lionesses would watch it back themselves and think it was an awful performance. You know, you started to wonder what was with all the changes going on behind the scenes, but they just had this steely determination. A little bit like when I said about Ada Hegerberg the other day, when she just had that right and you could see from the minute they came out they were having this by the scruff of the neck. And actually there was a lot of talk pre-tournament and has been actually since that first game

about Hannah Hampton with Mary Earp's retiring. But I tell you what her pass to that first goal was absolutely exquisite, which is maybe so for what sets her apart as England's number one, that she's capable of that. Yeah, I mean, we've all known her distribution qualities and I think she's a good shot stopper, but yeah, the thing that sets her apart is her feet as well. And we saw that I think when she made her debut against Spain in the Arnold Clark Cup all those years ago, that was the reason why she was put in for that game was so her ability to get the ball over the Spanish midfield and distribute it out wide and kind of break that kind of midfield

press as it were. So I think it's, yeah, her distribution is brilliant in that pass. It was amazing. I kind of watched it in slow motion, I think, when it happened. I don't know about you, Tom, but it just seemed to go straight through the middle. I was like, why is it taking out 95% of the Dutch players? And then suddenly Alessia Rousseau is through and breaking on goal. It just kept going, didn't it? I was like, someone's going to intercept this at some point. It was just like bubbling away. But yeah, I think that is her big quality. Yes, she is a brilliant goalkeeper in terms of what she does between the sticks, but having that extra weapon that you can

use. You can see it when England try and build out from the back or she doesn't take goal kicks always. They kind of use that extra player in the box as well to start that build up and start that distribution. So it's definitely a tool that England play into a lot and why she is one of the best goalkeepers in the game. Yeah, well, one of the best strikers in the game is Alessia Russo, named UEFA's player of the match, became the first player on record. Record started in 2013, bizarrely. Well not bizarrely, we know why. To register three assists at Euros. We talked so much about her goal scoring but

actually her out-of-possession work and qualities in the build-up came to the fore this time, Amy, even though you could tell how frustrated she was not to be on the score sheet. Yeah but look, I think she looked really sharp. I think she's had a great season. I think she's got better and better. There was even a moment late in the second half and she played a one touch link up out to the right hand side channel and I just thought, yeah, she was well and truly on it. I thought she occupied both centre halves really well. Coming back to the game plan again, I thought England were really intelligent when they were in the final third and Russo occupied the left centre-back. Knowing that Brutes was late to recover, that left her and Lauren James free at the back post.

So I felt like everything about Russo's game last night was on point, technically, tactically, and she created a lot of it. And she just knew it, in my opinion, she knew that she was going to have the beating of the centre backs, both coming to feet and going beyond. And also, you know, the past completion rate was so much better. Yeah, they were closer to her, right? Yeah. They were closer to her. She wasn't isolated. They were just aligned. Their strategy was aligned. You could see Toon working a lot higher, even sometimes it looked like a flat too because

she was up high enough, which probably gives her a sense of confidence to be able to play the parties early, quickly or make the run because she knows someone else will then occupy the space. Let's talk Netherlands, shall we? Because there were some strange decisions by Andreas Jonker, Tom. I mean, Amy mentioned it already, but keeping a fit Danielle van der Donk on the bench was bizarre. Nobody could quite work that out. Didn't see her until the 66th minute. He made a triple change at half time that saw midfielder Sharida Spitzer go into central defence. What did you make of his decisions?

Yeah, Jonker sort of pressed the panic button at half time with the triple change. They weren't massive improvements to be honest. Didn't matter who was on the field last night. The Netherlands were always second best to England in terms of the performances last night. And there was actually some criticism from the Dutch media of Jonker at the end that he hadn't started Danielle van der Donk and a little bit of disparity between the explanations. Van der Donk had said to Dutch media in the mix so that she had felt she was ready to start the game. Whereas when Jonker was asked about that, he said that he had had a discussion with the medical team and also with van der Donk

and explained that, you know, she could only play 20 to 25 minutes. He said there must have been a miscommunication or misunderstanding, but it was at times quite techy between the Dutch press and Juncker in the press conference last night. He was at one point accused of maybe being too attacking there. One of the journalists asked him if they should simply accept they're not a world class side and therefore set up in a more conservative way to try and defend better against what the Dutch media were calling like stronger teams whereas Jonker hit back and was then sort of insisting that no, the Netherlands were in that world-class bracket, but they just had an off day and it became quite a tense press conference for the rest of the evening. He did, I should say, accept responsibility

for the game plan. He said it was my game plan, I bear responsibility for that. But he admitted that they had thought they had the game plan too. In his words, compete with England and he said, realistically, it turned out they did not. Yeah, it's interesting because I thought he would come out particularly fighting in this game, bearing in mind he's made it very clear that it was the Dutch FA's choice and not his to move him on after the tournament. And of course, it's Serena Wiegman's assistant, Ian Vuurink, who is taking his job effectively after the tournament. So the fact that he has to go against his replacement in the opposite dugout for this game, I thought

would give it a little bit of extra spice. But it certainly seems like there's a bit of drama going on behind the scenes. So do you think it's impacted all of that, the squad at all? Well, it can't be helpful, I'm sure. When they hear it, I mean, it wasn't just this press conference that was techy. It was the one before the first game against Wales where he had a proper argument with one of the journalists in the press conference because I think he was accused of just making a puppet show and he said this is not a puppet show or something along those lines so he took exception to that I think. That's a strange question to ask to be fair. I mean, from my experience with the Dutch press as well, the English press get a bad

rep, but definitely the Dutch press, their questions are a lot harsher sometimes, I think. So he had to deal with that in the buildup. I mean, I guess in some ways it might look like he's protecting his team, but I think the argument that's sort of simmering beneath the surface with the Dutch FA is not ideal for preparation for a tournament. He obviously didn't want to leave the job. He's been replaced against his will, as it were. And I guess that puts you in a really, really tricky position as a manager, where you've

been told you have to see out the tournament. I think he went on a podcast and implied that maybe he shouldn't have seen out the tournament, maybe he should have just gone. So I think it's a bit disturbing behind the scenes for sure that all of this chaos is happening. I just think it's strange to announce it. Why would you announce it? Unless they had to because it had got out. But I don't know, I just think that's not ever going to help your preparations at all, is it? Right, so Wales away England next, Amy. And England now know that a win's going to see them through to the quarterfinals. It's a very different

challenge from the previous two games. How are England going to approach it? Yeah, I think firstly Wales did well last night night despite the scoreline. So I wouldn't underestimate them. They've changed their shape, they've changed their structure and actually arguably it suited them a lot better last night. However, I think if England play with the energy that they did last night, it could be quite a tough, tough night for Wales, especially considering it's the third game in quite tight concession for them to work with. I think we've now got to continue being aggressive and front footed out of possession. I think that prevents us from then being on the back foot. There was

almost times in the second half when Netherlands grew into the game and we dropped off that you start to see we struggled to cope with the rotations in front of us and our back line can get caught at times passing onto the midfield so we have to press high in my opinion we have to try and go for territory and keep it away from our defensive third and I'd like us to keep Thuney on to be honest with you I think she brings a different dynamic to the midfield and brings the legs that we probably need to support Rousseau beyond. Yeah, I agree with you with all of that. And because they know what's at stake, I think they'll be ruthless. I mean, they would always be ruthless anyway. But you're right, Wales played well. And that's what we're going to speak about next because that's it for part one.

In part two, we'll look at Wales against France. Plus, we'll catch up on the action from group C. A woman wakes up in a hospital having lost 14 years of her memory only to find she has a 13-year-old daughter. A birthday party turns into a hostage situation. Monuments emerge from the depths of the Amazon. My name is Branca Viana and these are some of the true stories we tell every week on Rádio Novelo Apresenta. The show's in Portuguese, but we have all the episodes transcribed on our website, radionovelo.com.br. Come listen. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Right, let's move on to Wales

who took on France in St Gallen. It finished France 4 Wales 1. Clara Matteo opened the scoring but Jess Fishlock hit back to equalise just five minutes later. Cadeiato Diani scored a penalty just before the break putting France back in front and they consolidated that victory with a further two goals from Emel Madri and Grace Guerriero. We'll come to the game in due course Tom but we've got to start with Wales's moment of history. They had to wait fully for that celebration. Lovely VAR always putting the restraints on any kind of celebs but their first goal at a major tournament and it was of course, you could have written it, Jess Fishlock's name on the

score sheet. We could have predicted it was going to be her and it was scrappy but it went in. Oh, Faye, I was so happy that it was Jess Fishlock who got that historic goal for Wales, their first women's major tournament. I don't think you will find anybody in global women's football who wasn't smiling at the fact that it was Jess Fishlock and when you saw what it meant to her and her Wales team-mates, she has given so much to this team she put her heart and soul into playing for Wales she's committed to traveling back across the Atlantic for all their fixtures no matter what you know she's

been so committed to this cause and it was just fitting that it was her who got her name on the score sheets I think even though it was quite a strippy goal, it will go down in the history books of Wales and it was a special moment for them and her. She fully deserves it. I mean, she's been part of this setup for essentially two decades and nobody deserves it more. It will give Wales a lift as well because now they've got a moment to save, you know, they've broken that barrier, they've scored at a tournament. There's still a big quality gap against France and England and the Netherlands, but they did improve.

They were a bit braver with the ball last night. I thought Kerry Holland played really well, made some good runs, and there were things for them to cling onto, and they've improved. And England cannot be complacent when they go and play well. So one of the reporters in the England media conference with Serena Vigman last night was sort of hinting that, you know, should Serena Vigman make changes because quote, you've only got to beat Wales by any score now. And I think Serena Vigman came

straight back on that very strongly and said, listen, we've got to be really careful not to be complacent and don't assume we can beat Wales. It's still a good team, but we all know there is a gap in quality and resources and hopefully now Wales can, you know, use this tournament as a platform to qualify for further campaigns more regularly. Yeah, the plucky Wales narrative is annoying me a little bit because I think it's really disrespectful. I actually think they've played really well in both their opening games against opposition of France and Netherlands. I think that has to be put to bed on board of it now. And actually, they did get off to the perfect start, France, but we all hoped an upset could have been on the cards when that equaliser came and they got behind France quite a few times so what what what do you think that was that was down to? I think since Rhean

Wilkinson's come in she's made Wales a very good compact defensive unit and that's been you know before this tournament or actually before the final Nations League game I don't think they conceded more than two in a game in that Nations League A which is pretty impressive given who they were up against. So I think she has made them compact. She's made them more resilient and more like harder to break down, I guess. I think last night it was a combination of things. It was them improving a little bit or learning a lot from the first game. But I also do think I was a bit surprised by the seven changes that France made. Seven is a lot of

changes and I think to do that in a second game is a bit mad. Is there a little bit of arrogance there with that? Yeah maybe. It's not like the seven replacements are highly quality players, right? They're very, very good and they're all like excelling at club level. But it just disrupts the flow of things I think and it's just a bit strange. You normally expect it for like the third game, right, in a group stage where you've topped the group, you're pretty much through and then you kind of take the foot off the gas a little bit for that game. So yeah, I think that didn't help France

in the beginning as well either. So that's probably a reason why they were a bit disrupted in terms of their creative flow I guess. I mean, timing is everything, isn't it? And it happened to them in their opener France with Netherlands and Viv Miedema's goal just before the stroke of half time. And then we get the Diani penalty pretty much at the same time, which was a momentum killer for Wales. Conceding early and late in halves happens quite a lot when you've got younger developing teams, Amy. Why do you think that is?

I think, you know, you look at Wales and they've said themselves, they know they need to suffer. So that penalty came at the back of bouts of not having the ball for periods of time. And when you're defending that low, it needs a lot of concentration, a lot of focus. And I think that that happens, doesn't it? Equally, I applaud Rianne. I think she made some really brave changes, like the goalkeeper change, bringing in Middleton Patel. And I thought she did really well. I thought the structure changed. They had a solution to a lot of the problems such as the high press that France used and they looked good. They looked aligned and they looked pretty fluid when they had that ball as well. They caught France out.

France had a real high back line, quite naive in my opinion. Holland's very good double movement exploited it. Fischlok followed it up. I was really pleased for them. It's just being able to sustain it and like you said, late on just before half time that penalty was a real blow and actually Rachel Roe mopped it up. So it's a shame actually, but you know, Kerry Holland has been excellent in both games. So it's more a shame for her and it was a pretty poor, if I'm honest with you. It just seemed a little, the whole game, I'm going to be brutally honest from France's perspective and they made seven changes and it helps them now, right? They have fresh players. I think they'll do it against the Netherlands because they'll be sharp and they'll

be ready. So it's worked in that context, but also quite naive and it was passive. The game was passive from them and that's going to happen with that amount of changes. Yeah, it was a difficult watch at times actually, the game. And you mentioned Sophia Middleton-Pattel, fifth cap on the biggest stage, 20 years old, massive experience for her, Tom. Olivia Clarke swapped out as a result. What did you make of Rhian Wilkinson's decision? Well there was a bit of a gasp around the press room in Zurich amongst the England press pack when everyone realized that Sophia Middleton-Battelle

was playing but in a nice way. I think everyone was really pleased to see her get that opportunity. She's had to be so patient to wait for her big moment not just for country but for club as well if you think about the way that Manchester United operate with their goalkeepers. It's really rare for anybody other than the first choice goalkeeper to play under Mark Skinner so Fanantellis Joyce has played not just league but cup as well including league cup and for almost all of the matches. So Sevilla, Sevilla and Matelas had to be really patient but I was thrilled for her that she got that chance on the big stage which she can now learn from and take so much experience from. I think she would accept that she could have done better with a

couple of the goals. I didn't think it was her finest performance but she also did make some really good saves particularly late on. I really like the one diving down to her left low to palm away a bouncing ball that was quite awkward and I think she should take a lot of encouragement from some of the good things that she did and now you know she's only 20 years old she's still a really young goalkeeper so there's a lot for her to build on now for the future. Yeah without a doubt she'll be disappointed with the goal that she gave away no doubt but I thought she made some great saves almost got to the penalty which was a poor penalty

but she she almost got there even though she'd guessed the wrong way her legs almost caught it but yeah I mean what a prospect for the future without a doubt not so much a prospect for the future but still someone we absolutely love Sophie one of your namesakes Sophie Ingle I want to just discuss I mean she she got three minutes came on for for Jess Fishlock how good was it to see her on the Euros stage though? Lovely embrace between the two of them when she came on. You could just see how much it meant. You know, Sophie Ingle has been such a servant for the Wales for so, so long. And she almost, I mean, when you think about how she almost

didn't make the squad, she did her ACL in August 2024. She hasn't played a minute of football since until last night. So it's for her to be able to come into this team, get fit enough and recover. I mean, she's not in the early stages of her career either. She's in the twilight of her career. So to be able to fight back like that, get herself ready, have that drive to get herself to the Euros. And there must be days when you're recovering from that injury and you're thinking, I'm not going to make it. You've got such a tight time scale realistically in that period of time. ACLs can really, really take a long time to recover. So the fact that she got that moment and you could just see how much it meant to her, how

much it meant to Jess. Jess's smile on her face as she went over to spot places with her. And then I think they panned to the crowd and there's a lot of emotion within the red wall as well. Everyone knows how much I meant. I think Sophie Engel has been one of the underrated midfielders of her generation. She does so much work in terms of what she's done at Chelsea, but because she's surrounded by

the more glitzy stars, I guess, at Chelsea, she never quite got the credit I think she deserves for holding that team together and I think it's the same at Wales. She is such a world class midfielder. I'm so glad she got to go to Team GB and do an Olympics as well. And I think that just shows what kind of calibre she is. So for her to have this moment with her country, which she captained for a long time on this stage, is incredible. Yeah. And they've still got a faint glimmer of hope. It's very faint but it's still there. They've got England next, we've talked about that, that they're gonna be so up for it Amy as well and it feels

like there's so much more to this fixture. What kind of Wales are gonna come out to try and upset England? Well I think a large majority of those players in that Welsh side play with a lot of the English players or have played against them. So straight away you've got an extra bit of bite. You know what to expect. You referred to early goals and I think Wales will be used to maybe the tempo that will be set a little bit earlier now. They've got two games under their belt. They have got better every game. So I think we're going to see probably a lot more direct play from Wales, certainly down those outside flanks. I think they can

utilise Holland in those positions, but also Fjorm Morgan. I think she shows a lot of pace and that's an area that England will have to be really mindful of. I think it will be a real crunch match, to be honest. And I think England cannot be naive because, like I said, Rhian has had solutions to every problem. They haven't always come off completely, but they have created opportunities for them. All those little things, even the set pieces, we're going to have to be alert and ready and really make sure that we keep the tempo of our ballplay high. What Wales do really well is they slow down the opposition. They did it to France again last night and they force you into long balls and long balls don't work against a low block. So we need to avoid that and we need to utilise our midfield effectively to make sure that we

can break down that block. Yeah, so that's eight o'clock in St Gallen, England against Wales. That's British summer time by the way and And Netherlands-France is at the same time in Basel. And I tell you what, that game, Netherlands-France, Tom, could make the group very, very interesting. How do you think it's going to go? Well, on the evidence of last night's matches, it's really hard to see anything other than a France win against the Netherlands. But then that's what I guess I thought after, you know, France beat England, you would never have really foreseen England putting in that fantastic 4-0 performance.

And maybe the Dutch team can surprise us with bare bounce-back ability. But realistically, if we look at the quality in the France side and the fact that France were able to rotate a bit against Wales and get some fresh legs in, you can only really see a France victory if you think about how much those Netherlands fullback struggled against Lauren Hemp and Lauren James. And now it's going to be even more challenging. Now they're going to have Sandy Baltimore running at Caspari down the French left and you're going to have Casparino running at Esme Brooks down the France right. So it's not going to get any easier for the Dutch

and they've got to win by a sizeable margin of goals to overturn the head-to-head, you know, if England were to beat Wales out as you would on paper expect them to so it's going to be really tough for the Netherlands now they are staring at the real possibility of going out in the group stage which when you think about the fact they won this competition just eight years ago you know it would be a massive disappointment for them and they once once again, you know, are victims of this really difficult group and adding to that their own poor performance last night here in Zurich. Yeah. So those final group D games come on Sunday, which is the 13th of July, various

complicated permutations involved. But the bottom line is if England beat Wales then they're through. Wales must beat England comprehensively to have any chance of getting through. Before we go let's look back at the two Group C fixtures that took place on Tuesday. Sweden and Germany progressed to the quarterfinals. Christian Vux Germany booked their spot with a 2-1 victory over Denmark. Amelie Vansgaard sent the Danes into a first-half lead, Bershka Nuschken's penalty, and Lea Schuler's finish saw Germany complete the comeback. It was a dramatic game, Tom.

Germany had two VAR interventions in the first half, denying them a goal and a penalty. Denmark probably should have scored more goals. Plenty of controversy as well surrounding the winner when Emma Snow got knocked out in the build-up. Actually I wanted to mention that it feels like they've not been as hot on head injuries in this tournament. The officials have been slightly slower than we're used to seeing when a player has gone down just as an aside having watched a

lot of football over the past 10 days or so. But what did you make of this game overall Tom? It was a lot of fun this game Faye and I think Denmark improved a little bit but really Germany should have scored by more goals. I was actually quite happy to see Shula get her goal in the end. She's been under a little bit of criticism for being wasteful in front of goals shall we, from some of the German media reports. So it was really nice to sort of see her eventually get her goal, even though I think she'll overall be disappointed that Germany didn't score more. They look good to me, Germany, but maybe not quite as good as we thought they would be

before the tournament. Obviously the loss of Julia Quinn, their captain to injury, is a massive massive blow and they'll be pleased that they've dealt with that psychological blow, you know, the losing your captain, and they've still come away with another victory. I think they'll be really proud of that. But yeah, Denmark, generally quite disappointing in their campaign. I think they'll be a bit gutted that they've not been able to make more of a dent into Germany or Sweden's chances that they'll want to beat Poland to finish strong. But overall I thought it was another fun game at what's an increasingly fun tournament to watch and

Germany, the room for improvement but still looking dangerous. Yeah, Sweden then went on to beat Poland in Lucerne. It finished Poland 0-0. Sweden 3, really dominant performance from Sweden this one. So, how did you analyse the match? Yeah, Sweden were on top from the minute one. They controlled the ball. They weren't letting Poland out of their own half. They weren't letting them find Eva Pio up front. I think she was really well-martied by Natalie Bjorn particularly. She just almost followed her everywhere and just didn't give her an inch and that's what you kind of have to do with a striker like that with the numbers that she has.

They kind of cut that out of Poland's play. Going forward, they looked okay. I do still think they waste way too many chances Sweden. They had you know probably a good eight chances in the first half, six of them high quality that should have been put away. Steenland Blackstone should have probably had four. She literally missed two open headers and a goal. It was saved that she should have put on target I think a bit more. But she got her goal, got them up and running and I do think at halftime he probably, Peter Goharsson probably made them very well aware of what can happen when you

have a striker like Pajor on the pitch and that they need to go out and kind of take it by the jugular, I guess. And Kosovo Azzlani did that. It was her 201st cap for Sweden, which is quite ridiculous. She got an assist and a goal in that game. And there were three headers goals. So that kind of shows where their strength is, I think. I think they do struggle to score from other variations at the moment. So yeah, things to work on for Sweden. It looked dominant. It was dominant. But I do think there are a few holes in there which can be exploited. Yeah, okay. So how are Germany going to exploit them then, Amy? Germany and Sweden meeting Zurich on Saturday in the battle to top the group. Obviously two heavyweights of the game, which

hopefully means a very exciting match. Yeah, I think it will be a great game, actually. I think I agree with Tom, actually, both are waiting to get into their real attacking flow and Sophie mentioned it about Sweden as well. Germany for me are really strong, but when it gets to the final third, they're so disjointed. It's really breaking down. Schuller looks isolated in the box. They make incorrect decisions.

I think if Germany can get their attacking central midfielders higher and to progress with play quickly enough because they do break wide very quickly with their fullbacks and their wingers, then they'll punish Sweden. I do think that, but I wouldn't write Sweden off. They have a lot of experience in that side. Sophie said they're very good at managing the game. They're managing tempo of the game, which could help, but if Germany get into their flow, I think they will go further in this tournament and do well, but we're waiting for them to really click in that final third.

Yeah, so that game, Eight O'Clock, British summer time in Zurich, a bit of a dead rubber, but Poland, Denmark at the same time in Lucerne. That straight shootout in group A by the way takes place between Switzerland and Finland tonight. That's Thursday night at 8pm in Sion because I asked if you remember someone Swiss to get in touch and set me right on the pronunciation of Sion and Raphael Eiberg obliged dear Women's Football Weekly podcast staff thank you for all the podcasts Sion is pronounced exactly like Leon it's a French-speaking city on are just one sound in French their Wikipedia page pronounces it for you keep up the good work go England tonight thank you

Raphael you gave us luck I appreciate that Message coming from Switzerland much appreciated. I can now carry on knowing the right pronunciation. I'm so terrible I always look and then we looked didn't we so and there were about three different pronunciations of it So thank you for clearing that up for us Right, let's look at what's going on in Morocco, the latest WAFKON action. Morocco themselves lighting up the tournament with a dramatic 4-2 victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo. Captain Ghislaine Shabak was on the score sheet again with a hat-trick, launching a comeback after Merval Kanjinga had given the Congolese the lead.

Flavime Mweti briefly levelled. Yasmin Marabats' penalty made sure of the win forese the lead. Flavim Maweti briefly levelled. Yasmin Maribat's penalty made sure of the win for the hosts though. Elsewhere Barbara Banda scored twice in Zambia's 3-1 win over Senegal to put them on the brink of securing a quarter-final spot. Some more transfer news back in England as well. Germany midfielder Sydney Lomans signed for Manchester City. Not particularly surprising particularly surprising bearing in mind the club shop started selling her jersey last week wonderful. Everton have signed another Japanese defender as well. Hikaru Kitagawa has signed from BK

Hacken following the signing that I mentioned the other day of Rion Ishikawa from Yorihu Red Diamonds. Aston Villa as well have signed Ellie Roebuck from Barcelona she is back in the UK. And you reported yesterday Tom, Liverpool have been talking to former Manchester City Manager Gareth Taylor about their vacancy. What more can you tell us? Yes, they are understanding is that Liverpool have held talks with Gareth Taylor and they've been talking for quite some time we believe, quite advanced stage talks now. Nothing's actually formally decided, no definite decision, but it does sound like the direction of travel is that Liverpool and Gareth Taylor are moving towards an agreement. So I think at this stage,

while he's not definitely in the job, I would think that's the most likely route that Liverpool will go down. And it could suit both parties really well. In Gareth Taylor, Liverpool would have will go down and it could suit both parties really well in Gareth Taylor. Liverpool would have a coach who's won the FA Cup in 2020, coach who's won the League Cup in 2022 and also finished second in the WSL missing out on a title only by goal difference so he's got good experience in the WSL and I think Liverpool admire the way he likes to try and play football his kind of passing style is well thought of it would suit the sort of passing style they want to play going forward. And for Gareth Taylor, you know, geographically, it wouldn't involve

a huge move from where he's been living, working at Man City, and it's a good job opportunity in the WSL. And I can see why it would suit both parties. So yeah, talks ongoing, but I would imagine this one might be wrapped up before, certainly before the end of the Euros, Liverpool will want to crack on and get busy with their pre-season, their signings and get everything in place for the summer because this has been a long time since Matt Beard's departure. And I personally, I hope for Amber Whiteley that she's able to stay on as a coach in the backroom team because she did a decent job, I think, as the interim head coach in the

meantime and is really part of the heart and soul of that club and if this appointment does get wrapped up then that would what I think feels finally spell the end of this really long managerial merry-go-round what we had man city tottenham liverpool and also of course palace of hampton bristol city all looking for managers this summer and this will now if it all goes through finally bring that to a conclusion and this will now, if it all goes through, finally bring that to a conclusion. The carousel has been a waltz, I think, from February. Everyone just wants to get off now and feels a bit sick. Let's just start again, shall we? Go back to the serenity of a slightly slow-moving carousel. Amy, it's been a pleasure. Your debut, how was it? I thought you were brilliant. Loved it. Thank you so much. Sorry about my

voice. You can tell we're back in training, can't you? It's hit me, first week. You've got to use that whistle more. Get a megaphone. We will see you soon, no doubt. And if we don't speak to you before the end of the Euros, then very good luck for the rest of the season for the start of the season looking forward with interest to how Birmingham gets on Tom lovely to see you you take care of yourself hope you're getting plenty of rest great to speak to you as it was very lovely to see you all and happy birthday Sophie. Sophie happy birthday to you we need Chris Powros don't we to pen you a ditty and a proper one rather than my terrible singing.

But what have you got planned for your day? I am going to Tyn which is a very pretty place in Switzerland. I'm going to see Norway, Iceland this afternoon. I haven't seen Iceland play yet so I'm quite excited about that. You've told me about the football already. I meant what are you doing for your day? My day kind of revolves around football always. But yeah, no, I think I'm being treated to brunch. So that's going to be good. Excellent, excellent. Well, I look forward to celebrating with you when you're home, which hopefully won't be earlier than we think.

Lovely to see you all. Thank you very much. Thank you for your emails as well. We're gonna be back on Monday to review the next three days of fixtures as the group stage reaches its conclusion. Keep having your say, send in your questions via social media or emailing us at women'sfootballweekly at theguardian.com A reminder as well that we're on the social channels for the Guardian Football Weekly as well during the tournament and as ever a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly Women's Football Newsletter penned by Sophie this week. All you need to do is search Moving the Goalposts. Sign up.

The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Iredell. Our executive producer is Salamat. This is The Guardian. at.