Is the “good England” sufficient for lionesses to keep their crown in euros?

After a chaotic start for euros for England, who saw them lose against France and get closer to the quarter -finals against Sweden, the team joined the “good England” in the hope of retaining its title in Switzerland.

For some players, these are fights and unit. For others, it is more resilience and being difficult to beat. Whatever the reason, “appropriate England” – which could be reformulated as “a England worthy of the name” – is used in any way possible by the lionesses, like a mantra capable of union a team that feared real at the beginning of euros.

The back against the wall after their 2-1 defeat against France in their opening match, England spoke for the first time in the competition of this famous “good England” before facing Wales.

“We talked about our desire to be a” good England “,” Georgia Stanway told the press conference.

“”We want to come back to what we know how to do. We want to come back to a traditional football style – tackle, come back to our roots and remember why we are here, remembering that we play for the little girl who wanted to be here. “”

It is a question of identity more than tactics for a team that is far from being the one that won Euro 2022 – only 13 of the 23 players of the current team are European champions.

A question of identity

“We are a New England and a new team. We have a lot of young players who have very different experiences to play for England than me.

“We are a very talented team, with a lot of technical and tactical capacities and everything that goes with it, but we never want to forget that we are England, that we are real England and that, if things go wrong, we can win a match by all possible means,” explained the Lucy Bronze experience at the press conference.

But while the lionesses “use this sentence a lot”, as England coach Sarina Wiegman admitted it during the press conference, the term “good England” was used for the first time by the women’s team on February 26, after a 1-0 victory over Spain.

Thanks to the goal of Jessica Park in the second half after Stéssia Russo was the victim of a fault by Irene Paredes, England demanded revenge on the side that had defeated them in the 2023 World Cup final. It was an inellant victory, full of resilience and defensive battle, but which satisfies Millie Bright, undoubtedly the best ambassador England ”.

“We talked about being real English women tonight. To have this feeling of fighting and desire to defend themselves, to work hard for each other and to be difficult to beat”, ” Bright pointed out after this victory.

The Chelsea Central Defender decided not to participate in Euro 2025 due to mental and physical fatigue, but his message influenced this new generation of English players.

In a England without three of his main players – Bright, but also Mary Earps and Fran Kirby – “Appropriate England” is also a means of union troops after a chaotic accumulation towards euros, when the English media said that Wiegman had lost part of his locker room. But it is also a way to remove part of the pressure as reigning European champions.

A revisited version of the “English” game

The coach, for his part, takes the expression at heart: “‘Good England ‘is what we are and what we want to show, ” Said Wiegman.

“There are moments in a match where you have to show this resilience, but at the same time, when you have possession of the ball, it is important for me that the passes we make are determined, and today you have really seen the intention in each pass that we have made, and for me, it is also” a good England “.

While the game plan of the “good England” – hard on the marker, with many duels, faults and fire shots – was initially a masculinist marker, English women refer to a “combat spirit” rather than a punishable commitment.

“For us,” good England “means that we will work hard and we will beat until we can no longer run“Said Russo.” We respect together, even if we often have possession of the ball. “

An inspiring victory for victory over Sweden

It was a mantra who bore fruit against Sweden in the quarter-finals, when England found himself 2-0 after 25 minutes against the Swedes and managed, for the first time in their history, to overthrow such an inconvenience within 103 seconds, thanks to objectives by Lucy Bronze and Michelle Agymanman (79th and 81st minutes), after the passes of Chloe Kelly, earlier.

In the end, they underwent penalties. “We must find several ways to win: additional time or penalties … and even if we lack penalties, we must have the mentality to deepen our resources and count on players like Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton to take over.

“Tonight’s victory is all we mean when we talk about” good England “- it was not pretty, but we succeeded!” Bronze smiled in the mixed area.

Tactically, England is still far from showing a robust style of play and is the team with the least successful tackles of the group phase, behind only Belgium. They even failed to be taken in their own game against a Swedish team renowned for its solidity and physique.

But although the defense may not be the strong point of the lionesses at the moment, because they have already conceded twice as many goals as when they were crowned champions in 2022, they can at least count on a collective spirit if they hope to upset an Italian team which is based on the same resources.