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Tom Hamilton
ZURICH — Lucy Bronze has said there is no one as good as England teammate Lauren James at Euro 2025 at creating chances out of nothing.
James scored twice in England’s 4-0 win over the Netherlands on Wednesday. The Lionesses bounced back emphatically from their bruising 2-1 defeat to France in their Euro 2025 opener and know a win over Wales on Sunday will be enough to book their spot in the knockout stages.
James was shifted to the right wing for the Netherlands and responded with a goal in either half. Her first was a remarkable finish, as a wonderful Hannah Hampton pass put Alessia Russo into space who then found James on the edge of the Dutch box. James shifted the ball to her left foot and powered the ball into the top of the Dutch net.
And post-match, Bronze hailed her England and Chelsea teammate James.
“We know we just need to get LJ the ball in dangerous positions and there could be a goal from anything,” Bronze said. “She’s probably the best player in this entire tournament for something special. There’s a lot of special players in this tournament.
“I know the likes of [Alexia] Puts and [Aitana] Bonmatía huge amount of talented players, but LJ’s [James] got that something special. She’s only young, she’s not at 100% yet, so hopefully we get through the tournament and she just keeps getting better and better.”
Andries Jonker, the Dutch manager, said post-match that James’ movement and strength made her hard to tackle, and Bronze said the two speak about this attribute.
“She’s so strong,” Bronze said of James. “She’s built really strong, has that power in her legs that you don’t see from many female footballers. I think that’s something that me and her both speak about it a lot. That’s kind of been a big attribute of my game in the past of being really powerful and strong. She’s got that and she has the technique to add to it when it comes to shooting and crossing and anything she wants.
“She’s so dangerous and she’s not even at 100% yet. So I’m sure a lot of the left backs in this tournament, or right backs or wherever she plays, they’ll not be wanting to see that Lauren James shirt coming up against them because she’s that frightening.”
And Bronze was delighted with the way England bounced back. She addressed the team after the France match, reminding them of how the 2015 team lost their opening match at the World Cup and made the semifinals. She was also buoyed by messages of support from former Lionesses.
“We finished the game against France and we got cameras and microphones shoved in our face telling us how bad we are, so it was important that we changed the narrative for ourselves, we stuck together,” Bronze said. “I think drawing on experiences is obviously a huge part of that. Getting the noise out of your head and getting a different noise in, I guess, is a good thing.
“A couple of older Lionesses messaged me to remind me of the same kind of experiences that we went through told us that everybody’s believing in us.
“Jill Scott‘s obviously hanging around, she’s a very positive influence. Toni Duggan was actually someone who texted me straight away after the game, sharing experiences. But yeah, there’s plenty of them. We actually still have the group chat from the last Euros. They always put in messages to say good luck, to keep going, like some from Millie Bright, Fran Kirbyloads of them are messaging.”
