Lauren Hemp has insisted that England’s underwhelming begin to Euro 2025 can’t be blamed on gamers getting back from damage, following their 2-1 defeat to France in Zurich on Saturday.
The Lionesses have been second-best for a lot of the match, and now face a must-win conflict in opposition to the Netherlands on Wednesday to maintain their title defence alive.
A second straight loss would get rid of the reigning European champions on the group stage.
Reflecting on the efficiency, Hemp acknowledged the group lacked sharpness on the ball and paid the value for his or her sloppiness.
“We should work on the standard of possession,” she mentioned, admitting England made “mistake after mistake” all through the sport.
It was an uncharacteristically error-strewn outing from Sarina Wiegman’s aspect, with France capitalising on England’s defensive lapses to safe all three factors.
Hemp was one in every of a number of gamers within the beginning XI who solely lately returned from long-term damage.
She missed a big portion of the season after present process knee surgical procedure in November, solely making her return in April.
Team-mate Alex Greenwood was sidelined with an MCL damage from December to April, Georgia Stanway was out from January to May with a knee subject, and Lauren James made her comeback from a hamstring damage simply final week through the 7-0 win over Jamaica.
Lauren James begins for England! 📋
“Any defender higher be nervous!” 👊
Lauren Hemp had a whole lot of reward for her team-mate. pic.twitter.com/87IN2SrHLF
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 5, 2025
Despite this, Hemp refused to attribute England’s poor begin to an absence of minutes on the pitch.
“I imply a whole lot of us have had an enormous period of time out and that’s clearly been gutting for us,” she mentioned. “I’ve missed a lot of the season, however we’ve additionally had 4 or 5 video games to stand up to scratch and I feel it’s no excuse actually.
“We’re all on this as a group and we’ve received a lot expertise on the pitch despite the fact that I’ve been out for seven months, additionally performed six years of my profession.
“It’s necessary to do not forget that and take confidence from it. Obviously we’re going to be a bit rusty however everybody’s going to be a bit rusty so we’re all in the identical boat, I’d say.”
With every part now using on their conflict with the Netherlands, Hemp is assured the group can rise to the event. Keira Walsh’s late purpose supplied a glimmer of hope and perception regardless of the loss to France.
“Quite a lot of the time we thrive beneath stress,” Hemp mentioned. “From how we acted within the final 10 minutes of the sport, we all know what’s up for stake and we clearly need to get so far as we are able to. We are reigning champions and that’s necessary to recollect and acquire confidence from that.
“I like enjoying and soccer matches the place we have to win, they’re the video games you wanna be concerned in. So yeah, it’s necessary we take confidence from elements of yesterday.
“I feel the largest factor for us to simply stick collectively. I feel we caught collectively as a group yesterday all through the entire sport and into the ultimate phases and that’s what we have to take with us.”
The showdown with the Netherlands may even see Hemp reunited with a number of acquainted faces from her membership days. Last season at Manchester City, she shared a dressing room with Dutch internationals Kerstin Casparij, Jill Roord, and Vivianne Miedema.
“I imply we all know a whole lot of them are good high quality gamers,” she mentioned. “I’m fortunate sufficient to play with a few of them within the WSL, and in opposition to them as properly and so we all know like their strengths and weaknesses and we’re going to undoubtedly work on that going into the following few days.”
