England captain Leah Williamson says the Lionesses are not framing the 2025 European Championship as a title defence but a “new opportunity” to win a major tournament away from home for the first time.
England head into this summer’s tournament in Switzerland as reigning champions after their victory on home soil at Euro 2022.
They followed that by reaching the World Cup final for the first time in 2023, but with a number of retirements and seven major tournament debutants, Sarina Wiegman said it was important her side “move on” from their past success.
“It’s new territory and you (Wiegman) explain it very well, not necessarily looking at it as a defence, but a new challenge and a new opportunity to do something new,” Williamson told a press conference on Friday, speaking ahead of England’s group-stage opener against France. “We take any challenge that comes our way.”
Goalkeeper Mary Earps and forward Fran Kirby both announced their international retirement ahead of Euro 2025, while defender Millie Bright withdrew from selection. Rachel Daly, Ellen White and Jill Scott have also all called time on their England careers since winning Euro 2022.
Wiegman has called up Michelle Agyemang, Aggie Beever-Jones, Grace Clinton, Khiara Keating, Maya Le Tissier, Anna Moorhouse and Jess Park for their maiden senior major tournament.
“We’ve spoken about it several times a couple of months ago,” Wiegman said. “The team has been in a bit of transition, and we absolutely cherish what we’ve done before, we never forget it, and those were lifetime experiences for us, for our families, and also for the fans. But you have to move on.
“And you have to be on top of things changing very quickly and developing very quickly, so we have to do too. And we came together in February and we came to say: it’s a new challenge. The approach was there anyway, but we call it ‘a new England’.”
Lauren James made her return to action from the bench for the last half an hour against Jamaica in England’s final pre-tournament friendly on Saturday, having missed the end of the season with a hamstring injury. Wiegman said James was available for further minutes against France but would not be drawn on whether the Chelsea forward was available to start.
“We’re not going to give you the line-up, but she played 30 minutes last week, she can play more than that,” the England head coach said.
(Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
