Georgia Stanway says the defence of England’s European title begins now as they prepare to face Germany in a friendly at Wembley in a repeat of the Euro 2022 final.
The midfielder, who plays for Bayern Munich and is in line to face several of her clubmates on Friday, says England will use their four upcoming friendlies to “hit the ground running” before the finals tournament in Switzerland next summer, having qualified automatically with their results in July.
Asked whether England had “gone stale” since reaching the World Cup final in 2023, in light of defeats by Belgium and France and narrowly missing out on Olympic qualification on behalf of Team GB, Stanway said: “No, I feel like it is always going to happen where you have a little bit of a comedown from things. We won a Euros, we made a World Cup final which was unbelievable.
“At some point, there is going to be a bit of a plateau. The Nations League was a little bit rocky but our performances [away] against France and Sweden, who are both top nations and will be among the top teams in the Euros, they’re both exceptional. From that you can see how we want to play, the football we want to play going into the Euros.
“I feel like it’s also good to say we have things to work on because this is the time to work on those things. Now is the time where we need to hit the ground running and talk about the things we need to fix and what happens in games. Not that we haven’t been doing that – but now’s the time to knuckle down on it.
“This is the start of our Euros and that’s what makes it an exciting process. We want to achieve what we have already achieved. We have to use these friendlies, the four we’ve got before the new year, to see how we want to do it, how we want to play. It’s an opportunity to work on what we need to work on in training and start afresh.”
Stanway was speaking shortly after news that more than 100 professional women’s players signed a letter calling on Fifa to end its sponsorship deal with the state-owned Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco, accusing Saudi authorities of “brutal human rights violations”. Fifa signed a four-year deal with Aramco, which is 98.5% state-owned, in April to sponsor the men’s World Cup in 2026 and the Women’s World Cup in 2027.
Stanway expressed support for her colleagues and, although explaining that she had not had a chance to read that news at the time of speaking, said: “On a topic like this, we have to stand for what we believe in.
“We have to stand for women’s rights and just have to continue to progress with that. The beauty of women’s football is we’re often on the same page. I know that if one person believes in something, you can get other people to believe in it as well [in the women’s game]. And I feel like that’s what makes the women’s game so special, because we know what we deserve.
“We know who we are, we know what we want to stand for, we know the legacy that we want to create and we know we want to make things easier for people in the future. So I feel like the beauty of women’s football allows us to be able to stand up for what we believe in.”
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The 25-year-old praised the appointment of the former Bayern Munich men’s head coach Thomas Tuchel as the new England men’s manager. On the topic of England recruiting an overseas coach, Stanway said: “I think it’s great. I have a Norwegian manager at Bayern [Alexander Straus]. It’s just whoever is best for the job.
“I had some experiences with Tuchel at Bayern. He was really invested in the women’s game. They [Tuchel and his assistant Anthony Barry] were really nice people. They came to a few games and came to a few events and only had time for us. I can only say good things in terms of personality.”
Stanway has arrived at St George’s Park with four goals in seven German league appearances from midfield this season, the team are top of the Frauen Bundesliga and also enjoyed a convincing win over Arsenal in the Women’s Champions League. She knows her clubmates will provide a tough challenge on Friday.
“With the Germans, you know what you’re going to get. They’re going to be feisty, they’re going to be robust, they’re going to want to put in tackles, they’re going to want to get in your head. But [also] they’re technically great.
“I can only speak of the players who are in my team but when you look at the likes of Giulia [Gwinn] down the right, Klara [Bühl] down the left, you could have Linda [Dallmann] there sitting in middle, Lea [Schüller] in the No 9, everybody poses an unbelievable threat.”
