‘Absolutely devastated’ Lionesses will bounce back stronger

Beth Mead acknowledged England’s players are ‘absolutely devastated’ to miss out on the UEFA Nations League semi-finals and Olympic qualification with Team GB but stated the Lionesses will bounce back even stronger.

Sarina Wiegman’s side went into the game with Scotland on Tuesday night knowing they needed to better the Netherlands’ score against Belgium by three goals if they were to make the final four of the Nations League, with the two finalists then being guaranteed a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

With England winning 5-0 and the Netherlands leading 2-0 heading into injury-time, it looked as though the Lionesses were on course for the Nations League semi-finals before a remarkable final few minutes.

The Netherlands scored a third goal against Belgium to theoretically go back to the top of the group but when Lucy Bronze headed in a sixth goal with what was the final attack of the match at Hampden Park, the players thought they were on course to progress.

However, Damaris Egurrola scored her second injury-time goal for the Netherlands in the fifth minute of additional time to send the Dutch into the final four and deny Team GB the chance of qualifying for Paris 2024.

Mead, who was making her first England start in more than a year due to a long-term knee injury, said: “I’m devastated, I think we did everything we possibly could on the pitch and I thought the team were incredible.

“Unfortunately, it wasn't in our hands and the Netherlands got the four goals. Congratulations to them but we’re absolutely devastated to miss out by such small margins.”

She continued: “We made sure we kept in communication and Sarina was telling us what was happening in the other game so we knew what we were meant to do.

“We got the late goal and we thought we'd maybe got over the line but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and that's football. It is small margins, there were injury-time goals in both games and it wasn’t meant to be.”

England scored an injury-time goal to beat the Netherlands 3-2 on Friday night at Wembley Stadium connected by EE to keep their hopes of progressing alive.

But Mead acknowledged they ultimately paid the price for losing 2-1 away to Netherlands and 3-2 at Belgium earlier this season.

“It’s a tough one. I think the girls have worked really hard. I thought we were incredible this camp,” Mead said.

“We’ve done ourselves proud in both games that we've played. Unfortunately, it was out of our hands and maybe we let ourselves down earlier on in the competition.

“But we'll keep working hard, we'll keep coming back stronger, and I'm excited to see what this team is about.”