Fara Williams pinpoints challenge Lionesses must overcome to defend European title

The Lionesses have less than a year until they travel to Switzerland to try and defend their Euros title

Fara Williams believes the Lionesses will be under added pressure as title holders in Euro 2025 (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for The)

Fara Williams believes England can defend their European title at next summer’s championships, although there are still improvements to be made at grassroots level.

England ended a wait stretching back to 1966 when Sarina Weigman’s Lionesses delivered the Euro 2021 title (in 2022), beating Germany in added time in front of a sold-out Wembley.

Women’s football had already been a growing force in the country with the Women’s Super League turning professional in the 2017-18 season, but it reached new heights following England’s success two years ago.

When asked if England can defend their title in Switzerland next summer, Williams, who played 172 times for the national side, told the Independent: “I don’t see why not, they’ve got a great manager and a great set of players, some really good young players coming through, but we also know that other nations are progressing as well as England are.

“We’ve seen how good Spain are having won the World Cup so can they win it? Yes. Will they? I don’t know because there are lots of other good teams as well.”

England were left heartbroken last summer following a World Cup final defeat to Spain, and may find themselves under additional pressure going into Euro 2025 as defending champions.

“It’s (a) huge (year), obviously we know they’re the holders of it,” Williams said.

“We know the terms that get used in terms of what fuels them. They’ll be thinking about all of these things going into these friendlies, these preparation games in order, to be in the best position come tournament football.

“So for them now it’s around what motivates them for tournament football, and they’ve got a long time until next summer for that. But it’s huge there’s pressure that comes with being European Champions, they know that. They had that in the last tournament, so they’ll know what to expect.”

:: Fara Williams unveiled a 200ft digital mosaic at Wembley Stadium, created by KIND Snacks, featuring England internationals and hundreds of members of the public showing the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to create moments of magic on the pitch. Fans can submit their own images for inclusion on a bespoke digital version of the mosaic by entering through KIND Snacks Instagram page