Vivianne Miedema makes telling England assessment as 'All or nothing' game looms

Vivianne Miedema claims England’s willingness to win ugly is the main way they differ from the Netherlands ahead of Wednesday’s crucial Eurosmatch-up. Manchester City striker Miedema has a chance to eliminate the holders from the tournament after scoring a stunner in the opener against Wales, with England now desperate for three points after their own defeat against France.

England midfielder Georgia Stanway spoke about trying to go back to ‘proper England,’ but Miedema pointed to her country’s own history of Total Football as the main thing that sets the rivals apart. “I think the cultures are very similar in a lot of ways,” Miedema said.

“I think the one thing that for me England is a wee bit different than us Dutchies is that in the end they don’t care how they win, they just want to win. But in Holland we’re always expected to be Total Football and tactically and technically really good as well. So I think that’s probably the biggest difference.”

Miedema is aware of the stakes at play as the last two Euros champions face off, but knows what her team has to do. “They’ve [England] got the pressure for the game… but we also take this game really seriously," she said.

“Obviously for us, if we get three points tomorrow it means that we’re through to the next round too. So it’s potentially going to be a bit of a game of all or nothing, I think, and we just have to ride that out.”

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Miedema is one of several members of the Dutch squad to play her club football in England, with more still having WSL experience from earlier in their careers, and has current and former club team-mates in the Lionesses squad. There are still some Dutch stars less informed about the Lionesses, though, and they have been turning to her for advice.

"Yeah, some of the girls who don’t play in England definitely have [come to me]," she said. "As I said, we’ve got so many girls who obviously have either played in England or still play there right now, so I think we all know each other very well. It’s really exciting to obviously be playing here, playing against the best players in the world, and we’ve got some of them on our [side] as well so it’s going to be not just a great game for us but obviusly for you guys to watch."

Dutch boss Andries Jonker will leave after the tournament, but has a chance to eliminate good friend Sarina Wiegman from the tournament before he goes. And there's a sense that could make for a bittersweet situation,

“You don’t want to hurt your friends so I’m sorry for Sarina but it’s football and we both work in the same business," he said. "In football you have to play against each other and you want to win. It doesn’t make me more happy to win than against anyone else in football, if anything, I am disappointed for Sarina. But I want to win."

Netherlands predicted XI: Van Domselaar; Casparij, Jansen, Buurman, Brugts; Groenen, Van de Donk, Kaptein; Pelova, Miedema, Roord

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