Hemp and England teammates look forward to playing huge rivals Wales

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FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Womens Euro 2025 Qualifier - England v Republic of Ireland - Carrow Road, Norwich, Britain - July 12, 2024 Englands Lauren Hemp reacts Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge/File Photo

REUTERS

ZURICH - There are few bigger rivalries in sport than England versus Wales which England forward Lauren Hemp said makes Sundays pivotal final group game of Euro 2025 in St. Gallen all the more exciting for the defending champions.

While Englands 4-0 thrashing of the Netherlands on Wednesday got their European campaign back on track, to ensure their passage to the quarter-finals they still must beat debutantes Wales, who would love nothing more than to spoil Englands party.

Its a great rivalry that we have, and theyre the games you want to be involved in, Hemp said at the teams training base on Friday. Theyre the ones that I absolutely love playing in. I feel like we dont need to explain the rivalry.

Obviously weve got so much respect for Wales. Theyve done really well in the competition so far but were very desperate to win, and we know what its going to take to win.

After Englands lacklustre 2-1 loss to France in their opener, the players and coach Sarina Wiegman talked about getting back to being proper England.

Weve spoken about it a lot. I think off the back of that disappointing result, taking a step back and remembering why were here and how we all got