Women’s Euro 2025 live: England handed key advantage after thrashing Wales to reach quarter-finals – UK Times

Ella Toone stopped and sent a kiss towards the sky. In moments such as scoring for your country at a major tournament, the most important people can become those who are not there. Toone is 25 and is already appearing at her third major tournament for England. But it’s also the first she has played in since the loss of her father Nick to prostate cancer last September. Another goal at Euro 2025 was dedicated to the memory of her most reliable supporter.

Her grief, though, has not disappeared. Every day is different and being away from home at a major tournament can present its own challenges. But when Toone is with England she can rely on the support and guidance of Beth Mead, who lost her mother June to ovarian cancer in January 2023 – just six months after winning the Euros. This is Mead’s first tournament since losing a parent, too, and the forward also pointed to the sky as she scored in England’s 6-1 win over Wales.

Georgia Stanway on England’s quarter-final against Sweden, who the Lionesses defeated 4-0 in the Euro 2022 semi-finals.

“We’ve got a lot of experience against them. Obviously they’re tough, they’re physical, they’re more direct. I’m not sure we’ve faced that so far in our group, but we do have a lot of experience against them. We review this game and we’ve got a few days’ rest and then we’ll do what we can to put ourselves in the best possible position.

“It’s tournament football. I think anything can happen in 90 minutes. I think we just need to continue where we’ve been. If we have the intensity that we had against the Netherlands, if we press the way that we pressed tonight, if we win the ball back as much as we did today. We can only control what we can do.”

Sarina Wiegman now has the most wins by any manager at the Women’s Euros. Victory over Wales was her 14th at the tournament as coach of Netherlands and England, overtaking ex-Germany boss Christina Theune-Meyer.

“First we recover from this and then we go again against Sweden in Zurich,” Wiegman said after the 6-1 win. “I’m very happy, as far as I know everyone came fit out of the game, now we have three days to recover.

“When you lose the first game there’s massive urgency to win the other two. [There’s been] a lot of learning with this team, and it brought us together.”

England forward Beth Mead heaped praise on “unbelievable” team-mate Ella Toone after she helped propel the defending champions into the Euro 2025 quarter-finals with a goal and two assists in their 6-1 victory over Wales in St Gallen.

“I think Tooney is really coming into her own and sometimes in, you know, situations where you feel a little bit low, it brings you to the top of your game and I have completely felt that and done that before, been in a tough place and come back and I think you can see that she’s given that kind of aura, that type of energy and she deserves everything she’s getting right now because she has worked really hard for it.”

Wales’ most-capped player Jess Fishlock is not ready to make any decisions about her future after the major tournament debutants bowed out of Euro 2025 with a 6-1 loss to England in their final group stage encounter in St Gallen.

The 38-year-old stalwart became the first Welsh woman to score a goal at a major tournament in Wednesday night’s loss to France, and made more history in St Gallen on Sunday night with the nation’s first major-tournament assist, providing the excellent threaded pass for substitute Hannah Cain’s late consolation.

Fishlock has come full circle, having made her senior debut for Wales in host country Switzerland as a teenager in 2006 and arriving back here as her side’s all-time top goalscorer.

“I don’t know right now,” said Fishlock, asked about her future with Wales. “I think that’s a tough one. I need to take a little seat and have a little think, but no decisions are to be made.

“As of right now, I’m still a Welsh player.”

England’s Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones celebrated their goals against Wales by snapping their fingers in a show of appreciation towards those players who were left on the substitutes bench.

Mead and Beever-Jones came off the bench in the second half to score England’s fifth and sixth of the night against Wales and both celebrated by running towards the sidelines and clicking their fingers.

Afterwards Mead revealed that those left out of Sarina Wiegman’s starting line-up were “snapping” in an attempt to motivate each other before promising to celebrate that way if they came off the bench to score.

Ella Toone said she was buzzing for Alessia Russo after the England striker got off the mark at Euro 2025 in the 6-1 win against Wales.

Russo had goals disallowed against France and Netherlands, where she set up three in the 4-0, but she scored her first of the tournament last night.

“She really deserves that. She’s been really good for us and probably not got the goals that she’s wanted to,” Toone said.

“Her hard work doesn’t go unnoticed for us as a team. She starts to press from the from the front. She holds the play up.

“She’s created so many chances for us and it was nice to finally assist her and for her to get on the scoresheet and hopefully she can continue with the goals.”

England forward Beth Mead said the opening defeat to France at Euro 2025 was the best thing that could have happened to England in their title defence after recovering from that result to reach the quarter-finals.

Mead said the poor performance against France gave England motivation to improve and the Lionesses have built some momentum after going back to basics and winning impressively against the Netherlands and Wales.

“It didn’t seem it at the time, it probably was the best thing that could have happened to us as a team,” Mead said. “I think it motivated us. We had conversations, we figured things out that we maybe needed to.

“You don’t win or lose a tournament in the first game, I think it’s cliche to say it, but you don’t, and we’re now in a position where we’re building quite nicely and hopefully we can continue that momentum now into the quarterfinals.”

England have successfully reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2025 after recovering from their opening defeat to France to finish as runners-up in Group D.

The Lionesses faced the danger of an early elimination after their 2-1 defeat to France but bounced back to impressively defeat the Netherlands 4-0 a few days later.

A 6-1 victory over Wales secured England’s place in the knockout stages – even if a strong France team go through as Group D winners after avoiding defeat to the Netherlands and winning 5-2.

England now know their path to the Euro 2025 final in Basel, and the Lionesses have actually landed on the opposite side of the draw as world champions Spain and cannot play the tournament favourites until the final.

For a Wales team who have brought so much passion, colour and pride to Euro 2025, this was no way to go home. As one, Wales stood in front of their Red Wall in St Gallen, and there is certainly no disgrace in losing to England, France and the Netherlands in what was their major tournament debut.

But England had to be ruthless, and a 6-1 win to finish the group stage sends a message. “Sweden should be scared,” said Ella Toone, and this performance showed why as Sarina Wiegman’s side returned to their destructive best with the biggest win of Euro 2025 so far.