Lauren Hemp says England know what is at stake after opening defeat

By Rachel Steinberg

Lauren Hemp says England know what is at stake after opening defeat

Forward Lauren Hemp insists England know what is at stake when they play the Netherlands on Wednesday as they bid to keep their European title defence alive.

The Lionesses鈥 backs are against the wall after suffering an tournament-opening 2-1 defeat to France to set up what is already being billed as a 鈥渕ust-win鈥 meeting with 2017 champions the Netherlands.

Victory could alleviate some of the danger of England becoming the first defending champions to crash out in the group stage, but they need to spark some swagger back into the side ahead of the critical clash.

鈥淭his team, a lot of the time, we thrive under pressure,鈥 said Manchester City forward Hemp. 鈥淥bviously it鈥檚 one of those situations. Every game we go into, we want to win.

鈥淔rom how we acted in the last 10 minutes (against France), we know what鈥檚 at stake, and obviously we want to get as far as we can.

鈥淲e are reigning champions. It is important to remember that and gain confidence from that.

鈥淚 love playing in football matches where we need to win. Those are the games you want to be involved in. It鈥檚 important we take confidence from parts of yesterday.鈥

It was the introduction of late substitutions that sparked England 鈥 down by a quickfire first-half French double 鈥 to life, but Keira Walsh鈥檚 87th minute goal proved mere consolation.

On Sunday, the Lionesses held a well-attended open community training session at their Zurich training base, Sportanlage Au, followed by an autograph signing.

Most of the players who trained either did not feature in the opener or had short cameos, including major tournament debutants Grace Clinton and Michelle Agyemang, who made an argument for getting more minutes despite winning just her second England cap.

The defeat was a first European Championship group-stage loss for England boss Sarina Wiegman, who led the Netherlands then England to their respective titles 鈥 the only head coach in men鈥檚 or women鈥檚 football to win a Euros with two nations.

Saturday was hardly England at their best, but asked what the mood was in camp this morning 鈥 and whether or not team-mates had called each other out, Hemp replied: 鈥淚鈥檇 say it was more of an arm around each other.

鈥淲hen times are tough, we鈥檝e had difficult conversations on the pitch at times, I think after it, off it, you鈥檝e got to come together rather than push each other further apart.

鈥淎nd that鈥檚 what this team are good at 鈥 getting around each other and supporting each other. We鈥檙e going to need everyone back up to their best on Wednesday.鈥

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