Lionesses determined not to repeat France mistake as stars prepare for another must-win

England star Georgia Stanway is determined for the Lionesses to make another fast start against Wales on Sunday as they aim to stay in the Euros. Victory over Wales in St Gallen will guarantee their passage to the quarter-finals, with Germany or Sweden the opponents.

Wednesday's win against the Netherlands ensured England's fate is in their own hands despte their reverse against France last weekend. The first goal was key in both games, with France delivering a sucker punch in the opener but first-half goals from Lauren James and Stanway herself setting England on their way on their return to Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich.

Before that game, the Bayern Munich midfielder spoke of the need for a 'proper England' performance, and was confident that's exactly what arrived. "Just from the first minute we kind of were like, we just need to go for it. And like, we had the urgency, we had the aggressiveness," she told That Lionesses Podcast connected by EE

"And like, we had the urgency, we had the aggressiveness. We didn’t let them breathe for like 45 minutes."

Two more goals followed after the break, with James scoring her second and Ella Toone rounding off the scoring. It means England won't have to rely on favours from elsewhere on Sunday - a win by any score will be enough - and Stanway is determined to avoid repeating past mistakes.

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"We don’t want to leave it too late like we did against France, we would like it to be a little bit earlier into the game," she said. "But yeah, credit to Wales for obviously being here and obviously that achievement in itself and it will probably be cool because we know a lot of the girls as well it will be nice to yeah have that moment as close rivals"

Captain Leah Williamson had a similar take, saying: "I think obviously it’s like a derby game so the physicality, like the need to be as we were yesterday just like on it and you almost want to try and suffocate the other team... That’s what we’ll be trying to do, but I think we’ll want to focus on us, and we’re growing in the way that we’re playing football if you compare France to the Netherlands game and we want to keep stepping up our game as well."

Despite only being 26 years old, Stanway is one of the most experienced players in the squad and one player who the younger members of the squad can turn to. With a number of Lionesses players at their first major tournament, she has offered some important advice to help them stay grounded.

"There's always ups and downs along the way, like nothing is ever smooth sailing, both in life and in the sport that you've chosen," she added. "I've always said not to put too much pressure on yourself, like, especially while you're young, there's so much room for improvement, but also room for error.

"And the times when you do make errors are most likely the ones that you learn from the most. So yeah, probably stick with it. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. And when you do that, you end up enjoying things more, and then you get more out of it.

"I think that's what we have to be in tournament - you can't get too high and you can't get too low, because at the end of the day, there's another 90 minutes around the corner or there's not... So that's why tournament football is like, yeah, we have to stay just a plateau. You have to stay neutral, yeah, because there's always another opportunity to fix it, and there's always an opportunity to almost get over the hangover"

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