(Football news) England sent out a clear warning to all their opponents ahead of the Euro 2022 after defeating the Netherlands 5-1 at Elland Road in front of 19,000 supporters. The Lionesses found themselves in unfamiliar territory after being a goal down with Lieke Martens finding the back of the net for the Netherlands from a corner. However, England scored the equaliser through Lucy Bronze in the 34th minute to ensure both the sides remained on level terms at the start of the second half. 

It was a dramatic start to the second period of the match as within the space of a minute, Sherida Spitse missed a penalty when Alex Greenwood was brought down by substitute Danielle van de Donk while Beth Mead found the back of the net with Lauren Hemp giving the assist. Ella Toone scored England’s third with a fantastic curling effort and Lauren Hemp scored the fourth from inside the box. Beth Mead capitalised on some questionable defending by the Netherlands side to score England’s fifth in a memorable win at Leeds’ stadium.

In the post match interview, England manager Sarina Wiegman said “We've spoken about that, there are many favourites – we are one of them. We know where we want to go. We stick to strategy or plans, whether we lose or win. If we would have lost today, we know where we could improve in our style of play. The expectation will go higher but now is a moment. We had the Arnold Clark Cup which was close too. We have to improve a couple of bits.

“I don't think we are there because some things didn't go well and we have to improve that too, so we will start working on that on Monday. It was a good learning moment that we came from behind and conceded a goal. We haven't done that since September, since I came in. It's good to see the reaction from the team and bring the game to the level we should be able to play. It's not frustrating, it gave me the question of what was going on. The Netherlands gave us a hard time too. Tactically we needed to do something a little different, in possession and out of possession, we are good at high ball tempo and playing runs behind. We didn't do that, it was too low and we did that a lot better the second half." 

Netherlands manager Mark Parsons said “England will be favourites in the Euros. Where they are, the quality of players, the home crowd, the resources the WSL has been putting in, the work the clubs have been doing – it all comes together and it's very hard to see they're not favourites. They're very, very good. I think opponents watching the last 30 minutes will be worried. You have a top, top coach that's been there and won it. Arjan [Veurink] and Sarina are doing some strong work. 

"Eleven years ago, I left England and at that point, it felt like giving women's football what it deserved is a responsibility and now people are looking at it as an opportunity to develop world-class players and make money. It's an investment, the Women's Super League has led the way. Sky Sports are putting big investment by showing women's football – which is what this is about. The [Dutch] Eredivisie's doing good work but between the Euros and the pound, the investment is big. It's paying off for the national team. They're a fun team, a great team and we're going to be much more prepared the next time we face them."

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