James leads England rout of Netherlands to revive Euro hopes

England's Lauren James scored twice, while Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone also found the net to put the defending women's European champions firmly back in the driver's seat at Euro 2025 with an emphatic 4-0 victory over the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Four days after a lacklustre 2-1 loss to France made Wednesday a must-win match, England came out firing on all cylinders in front of a festive crowd that included Britain's Prince William.

England and the Netherlands both have three points from their opening two games in Group D, level with France who can go three points clear at the summit if they beat Wales later on Wednesday.

England play tournament debutants Wales in their final group game on Sunday, when the Netherlands play France.

James showed precisely why she had been selected despite not having played for more than two months when the squad was announced in June because of injury. The Chelsea forward was at the heart of England's attacks and scored a sumptuous opener in the 22nd minute before netting her side's third on the hour mark.

James received a standing ovation -- and a kiss blown from her proud dad -- when coach Sarina Wiegman replaced her with Chloe Kelly midway through the second half.

James has now been directly involved in more goals than any other European player across the last two major tournaments, with five goals and 3 assists, according to ESPN Research.

"I enjoyed it a lot. The goals say it all," James told the BBC.

"We bounced back from our previous game and today we showed we're more than capable of showing the world what we can do."

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James opened the scoring when goalkeeper Hannah Hampton picked out Alessia Russo with a stunning long ball. Russo slipped it to James on the edge of the box who worked the ball onto her left foot before unleashing a screamer into the top corner.

Stanway doubled England's lead seconds before halftime when the Dutch struggled to clear the ball and the midfielder was there to fizz a first-time shot past wrong-footed goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar.

An unmarked James completed her double in the 60th with an easy shot from inside the box.

Toone, who had replaced Beth Mead in the starting 11, added more misery for the Dutch in the 67th minute. Russo held up the ball in the penalty area before sending it to a running Toone, who calmly slotted home.

That goal condemned the Netherlands to their record margin of defeat at a World Cup or European Championship, having never previously lost by more than two goals.

Wiegman, who coached the Netherlands to the Euro 2017 title, will have been delighted with her team's response after the defeat to France, as they thoroughly smothered the Dutch, taking 17 shots to the Netherlands' four.

"How we came together, how we played down the pitch and of course I'm very happy with the score because that's a massive help because goal difference can make the difference," Wiegman said.

"Also the days into this game, how we looked at each other's eyes and said, 'OK what do we do?', and execution of the game plan. I think that really helped."

They also kept Vivianne Miedema, who scored her 100th international goal earlier in the tournament against Wales, under wraps.

"It's tough, we need to accept it because we don't deserve anything else today," Miedema said. "England came out the way we thought they would and we weren't intense anywhere on the pitch.

"We need to look at ourselves -- we wanted to press high which didn't work because we couldn't cover the distances. We know how good England are but I don't think today really reflected how we are and how good we can be."

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.

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