England will go into Sunday’s match against Wales brimming with confidence after beating the Netherlands 4-0 in Zurich on Wednesday night [Philipp Kresnik/SheKicks/SPP]

WE feared it was all over but England got back to their European Championship best on Wednesday by going on the rampage against the Netherlands in a thumping 4-0 victory in Zurich.

Having lost to France, the defending champions had to avoid defeat to the Dutch to stay in the tournament, and all the talk in the press conference before this second EURO 2025 group game had been of the pressure and jeopardy that England faced.

The Lionesses had never lost a game on this stage under head coach Sarina Wiegman so it was a completely new situation for a group that included a host of 2022 championship winners.

But Wiegman’s players more than rose to that challenge in front of 22,600 fans at the Stadion Letzigrund and departed the pitch with arms aloft and the sound of EURO 2022 anthem ‘Sweet Caroline’ ringing in their ears.

A stylish brace from Chelsea’s Lauren James and fine efforts from Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone settled it.

And afterwards attacker Chloe Kelly said the team had been aware of the criticism that followed their dismal display against France, but had been able to block it out.

“Every interview that we had there was a little bit [of criticism],” the Arsenal player told the New Journal. “But that’s the way it goes, we’re English and we know that comes with pressure so we block out the noise from the outside world and we focus on our bubble.”

Head coach Wiegman was clearly happy with the way England responded, telling the press conference afterwards that they knew they had to put on a show against a nation she had led to the European title in 2017.

“I’m very happy with the performance, we bounced back really well from France because of course we were not really happy with that performance,” she said. “We knew we had to perform really well today. How the team responded was really good.”

Pitched into a difficult group with France and the Netherlands, Wiegman said she had known before the tournament how hard their task would be and that defeats “can happen”.

But speaking of her approach to what was billed as “a must-win” clash with the Dutch, the 55-year-old, who has led both the Netherlands and England to World Cup silver as well as European glory, said it was important not to have made the France result “a disaster”.

“Losing the first game, it’s not the end of the world but it doesn’t put you in the best position,” she said. “France was not nice, but it’s one game and we want to do better in the next game.

“I think it’s really important that you come together and you have conversations because it’s a team sport and that’s what the team does really well and have done well over the last few days.”

Positional changes to the starting XI from the France clash and the introduction of Ella Toone for Beth Mead from the start certainly seemed to pay off for England, who now need to beat Wales on Sunday to progress to the last eight.

Debutants Wales have yet to win a match and have suffered heavy losses to both France and the Netherlands, but Wiegman warned against any complacency.

She insisted: “We need a very good performance against Wales because they are very hard to beat.”

Catherine Etoe reporting from Zurich