LJ's EURO dream

Lauren James says the motivation of playing at UEFA Women's EURO 2025 helped in her fight to be fit for this summer’s tournament in Switzerland.

The Lionesses forward missed the last few months of the season with her club Chelsea through injury, but always knew she had a chance of making it back to fitness in time for the tournament.

And she’s since played a key role in helping England reach the quarter-finals, after her brace against the Netherlands and another impressive display against Wales in the group stage helped set up a game with Sweden in the knockout stages.

"I think even without the tournaments, I'm always working to come back as quickly as possible when I've been out,” she said.

"But with the EUROs around my mind, it was always something that I wanted to make.

"It's a great feeling to be back out there on the pitch and it's just nice to help the team in any way that I can.

"For me, wherever I am on the pitch I always feel comfortable and Sarina always allows me to be free and run so I’m in a good place.”

The 23 year old made her senior debut for England in September 2022, just a few months after the Lionesses won their first major title at the last EUROs on home soil and has since become an important figure in the team, earning a total of 31 caps and scoring nine goals.

And having seen the success of 2022 from the sidelines and now being among a squad of which the majority of players were involved three years ago, she admits it’s something she’s keen to taste herself.

"It'd be massive [to lift the trophy],” she added.

“It's obviously a dream of mine and the seven or eight others who are now in the team as well.

"Hopefully, we can just take it game-by-game from here and keep progressing. We all have belief and it's just about focusing on the next game.”

Following their opening-game defeat against France and their subsequent victories against the Netherlands and Wales, the squad are now fully focused on their next test against Sweden back at the Stadion Letzigrund where they played their first two games of the competition.

"We haven't really celebrated as such,” revealed James.

"I think, one game at the start doesn't define the players or the team. What we did against the Netherlands, I think shows everyone watching that this is who we are.

"We have belief in how we're going to play, but we know that any game isn't going to be easy so we'll have be on our A-game again.”