Lauren Hemp highlights clear England 'advantage' before must-win Euro 2025 clash

While the title of defending champions could easily rest heavy on England after their opening game defeat, for Lauren Hemp it is providing a source of confidence ahead of a must-win clash against the Netherlands.

The Lionesses fell to 2-1 defeat to France at Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich but, despite a lacklustre opener, Hemp believes there is still plenty to take heed from.

A strong start and finish for the Lionesses provided hope - from an otherwise uninspiring display - while there is plenty of credit stored to show exactly what England are capable of.

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"We are reigning champions. That is important to remember and gain confidence from that. There are moments from the game where we can see that," said Hemp.

"There's definitely positives to take away from the game. We started strong and I thought we'd finished strong, as well. Obviously there's also so much we can improve on but we'll look at that and really work hard on what we can take forward into the Wednesday game.

"We know we have got to win the next two games and I think the fight at the end shows how much we're willing to do for this team and how much we want to make sure we get through to the next round."

Hemp's focus on England's position as holders, arguably, contradicts manager Sarina Wiegman's pre-tournament focus on a ‘new England’ and leaving thoughts of past success.

But now the Lionesses will look to draw on those successes to restore belief of exactly what they are capable of with no room for error against Oranje Leeuwinnen.

It is a challenge that Hemp will relish as England return to the Stadion Letzigrund for their second Group D game.

"This team thrives under pressure. Every game we go into we want to win.

"As a player, must-win games are the ones you want to be involved in," she said.

"You see how we reacted in the last 10 minutes of the game and we know what's at stake and we obviously want to get as far as we can.

"The most important thing is staying together. We stuck as a team yesterday throughout the whole thing and that is what we need to take with us."

But while that faith remains, the Lionesses will know there is a big gap to bridge in performance levels, if they are to fare better than they did against France. Individual errors proved costly against France as passes often went awry and players were caught out of possession by an opposition who were more than happy to exploit the flaws.

The score-line could have looked much worse for England but, for Hemp, the one-goal margin of defeat is also a positive signal as the Lionesses try to get up to speed.

"Quality in possession is a massive thing. We like to pride ourselves on that as a team and unfortunately in games that happens where you make mistake after mistake," reflected Hemp.

"We know that we can do better. But something we can take from that is the fight that we have shown.

"Even when things aren't going our way we can try and turn it around. We came up close - even when we weren't at our best. But we know you can't afford to do that in this competition - so we're going to make sure we're at our best going into the next game now."