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Lauren Hemp insisted England are desperate to win their 'derby' match against Wales on Sunday as they aim to secure progression to the Euro 2025 knockout stages.
The Lionesses bounced back from an opening defeat to France with a resounding 4-0 victory against the Netherlands on Wednesday, meaning a win against Wales would all-but-guarantee a place in the quarter-finals.
But while many have already written off The Dragons' ability to get a result against the defending champions, Hemp is aware of the threat that Wales still pose. “We’re very desperate to win and we know what it’s going to take to win,” she said. “It’s going to be a really tough match.
“We have so much respect for Wales, and they’ve done really well in the tournament so far. “We’re going to play to our strengths and do what we do. You never know what you’re going to get from this England team but what you will get is a lot of fight, a lot of character and we’re going to try our absolute best to win.”
The rivalry between the two nations is well-established, and in women’s football they have met twice before in recent history, with both meetings happening during World Cup qualification in 2018. Those two encounters resulted in a 0-0 draw in England before a trip to Wales saw the Lionesses triumph 3-0.
While Wales are yet to win a game at the tournament so far, losing 3-0 to Netherlands and 4-1 to France, England will guard against any expectations of a win heading into their final match of Group D. “We definitely won’t go into the game complacent,” asserted Hemp. “Wales have done well this tournament, they deserve to be there, and we have so much respect for them.
“They have a lot of great players who are experienced, playing week in, week out in the WSL, so they’ve got a good team.
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“But we also know that we’ve got a good team as well, and we’ve got so many strengths. “We’ve looked at their strengths and what we need to do to make sure we can give the best England performance that we can.”
Those strengths were demonstrated to full effect against the Netherlands when a brace from Lauren James and goals from Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone constituted a dominant win. It was much-needed as defeat would have seen England exit the tournament early, but despite inconsistent form so far this year they delivered when it mattered.
Sarina Wiegman’s tactical change to switch Alex Greenwood and Jess Carter at the back and bring Toone into the number ten position to move James out wide worked to perfect effect as the Netherlands looked overrun in midfield and defence. “We’ve all experienced losses in our career so we know what it’s like and we’re obviously all very disappointed about that first loss,” said Hemp.
“Coming into the next game we knew that we needed to win and the pressure was on but this team thrives under pressure. We were so disappointed with the last result that we just wanted to go in with the confidence to prove ourselves to everyone. “We managed to do that and we did that really well. We got four great goals, and we dominated the majority of that match.
“There are so many positives to take into the match on Sunday but none of that counts unless we put in a result against Wales as well.” But just as the Lionesses relished the challenge of proving themselves after defeat, they will relish a clash with their neighbours in St. Gallen come Sunday.
“It’s a great rivalry that we have and they’re the games that you want to be involved in. They’re the ones that I absolutely love playing in,” added Hemp.
“We’re all very excited about it. I don’t need to explain the rivalry because it’s like a derby. We want to win end of and we’re going to do everything we can to do that.”
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