Euro 2025: Georgia Stanway urges England to recover from ‘bad night out’ defeat to France in opener – ‘I'm fed up with talking now’
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Published 07/07/2025 at 17:54 GMT+1
England's Euro 2025 title defence got off to a difficult start on Saturday when they fell to a 2-1 defeat to France. Ahead of a nerve-racking clash with Netherlands on Wednesday, Georgia Stanway described the match as "like a bad night out" and insists The Lionesses need to put it behind them and get back to basics.
Stanway compares France loss to 'bad night out you want to forget'
Video credit: SNTV
Georgia Stanway described England’s opening Euro 2025 defeat to France like a "bad night out and you want to forget it" as she set her sights on resuscitating The Lionesses’ title defence.
Sarina Wiegman’s side fell to a 2-1 defeat against Les Bleues in Zurich on Saturday to get their Group D campaign off to a disappointing start.
Goals from Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Chelsea’s Sandy Baltimore put the French two goals up by the break and Keira Walsh’s late strike proved to be only a consolation.
Bayern Munich midfielder Stanway, who started against France before being substituted in the second half, was determined to put it behind her.
"I had a message from somebody that I know, and it was like: 'It's just like a bad night out and you want to forget it as much as possible and move onto the next one,’" Stanway said in a press conference.
"That is exactly what we are going to do."
England have the chance to right wrongs against Netherlands on Wednesday, again in Zurich.
The Dutch opened their tournament in style with a 3-0 win over Wales, meaning England risk elimination with a game to spare if they suffer defeat and France beat the Welsh.
But Stanway, a 79-cap stalwart of England’s Euro 2022 triumph and their run to the World Cup final two years ago, believes taking things back to basics could be the best response.
"We want to stop talking. Hence why I didn't want to do the press conference today, because I'm fed up with talking now," Stanway said.
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"It's time that we focus and we want to put things on the grass.
"We want to go back to a traditional style of football in terms of tough tackles, getting back down to the roots, and remembering why we are here.
"Playing for the little girl that wanted to be here. Sometimes it is about blocking out the noise and it's about just getting on that pitch and just getting stuck in."
England's final Group D game comes against Wales on Sunday, July 13 in St Gallen.
The winner of the section will face the runners-up of Group C and vice versa, a group featuring Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Poland.
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