England rout neighbours Wales to cruise into Euro 2025 quarter-finals

ST. GALLEN, Switzerland :Reigning champions England thrashed neighbours Wales 6-1 to reach the Women's Euro 2025 quarter-finals on Sunday, securing second spot in Group D and cruising into the knockouts, where they will face Sweden, on a high note.

Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo, Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones were all on target for England, who finished runners-up to France after their 5-2 victory over the Netherlands.

Sarina Wiegman's team will next face a Sweden side, who won all three of their games to top Group C, in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

"It is going to be a difficult game. We watched (Sweden) the other night and they were really good. We need to be on our best game," Toone said. "But we're feeling confident, I think they should be scared."

The second-place finish, however, could be a bonus as provided they get past the Swedes, England would potentially avoid world champions Spain in the semi-finals.

Stanway struck from the penalty spot in the 13th minute after a foul in the box, calmly sweeping her shot into the far-left corner past the outstretched hands of goalkeeper Olivia Clark to open the floodgates.

Toone found the back of the net with a scrappy goal eight minutes later. England capitalised on a sloppy clearance by Rhiannon Roberts, with the ball falling to Russo who nudged it into the path of Toone who fired home at the second attempt.

Hemp nodded a third inside 30 minutes after a clever pass from Lauren James to Toone near the byline. Toone found Hemp at the far post with a deep cross for an easy header.

Russo bagged her first goal of the tournament just before halftime when Toone made another dart to byline before cutting the ball back for Russo, who took one touch to