0918 hours, Saturday. July 5^th.

It’s Day 4 of Euro 2025. The Lionesses enter the tournament at 2000 (BST) today. I am excited and nervous in roughly equal measure; my excitement just about outweighing my apprehension.

Our girls face France in their first game in what many have dubbed “The Group of Death” (GoD). There is a “GoD” in most every major competition. With France, The Netherlands and Wales our rivals in Group D, it seems this year’s “GoD” includes us. The French and Dutch teams are our toughest games while the Welsh – making the debut at a major tournament – are seen as the weakest of our opponents at this stage. I think Wales will prove a real handful and I suspect they may take three points off someone. I just hope it isn’t us.

I’m writing this pice with eleven hours or so to go until England kick-off. It will be interesting to see who Sarina Wiegman selects in her starting eleven. Here’s my guess:

GK Hannah Hampton (obvs! – the other two GKs are uncapped))

DEF Lucy Bronze

DEF Alex Greenwood

DEF Leah Williamson

DEF Jess Carter

MID Ella Toone

MID Georgia Stanway

MID Keira Walsh

FOR Alessia Russo

FOR Lauren Hemp

FOR Beth Mead

Come 1900, or thereabouts, we’ll see just how right or wrong I am.

So….what’s been going on at Euro 2025 so far? Here’s a quick re-cap of what happened yesterday – and yesterday’s yesterday…

Day 1:

Iceland 0:1 Finland

Switzerland 1:2 Norway

The hosts – Switzerland – led at half-time with Norway looking ragged in the first half. But Norway improved and scored twice to take the points; they even had a penalty they sent wide of the post.

Day 2:

Belgium 0:1 Italy

Spain 5:0 Portugal

Spain, the Current World Champions, were 2:0 up inside seven minutes. Portugal were cut apart every time the Spanish came forward. Spain making an early and impressive impact at these Euros.

Day 3: (Yesterday)

Denmark 0:1 Sweden

Germany 2:0 Poland

A little bit of “niggle” in the Denmark/Sweden match. Several juicy challenges from both sides with one or two coming-togethers. The Swedish fans kept up a near-constant – and slightly irritating – rendition of a few ABBA songs.

Germany laboured into first 45 before snapping into gear after – I presume – a half-time lecture from their boss. A tidy, professional and ruthless second-half performance saw off Euro debutants Poland who looked dangerous in patches and on the break. German captain Giulia Gwinn suffered an injury while making a challenge; news has yet to come about the severity of the damage but it could be her tournament is over already. Hopefully not.

I have watched five of the matches to date. I missed the Belgium Italy game as we spent the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine with a beer (or two) at a charity cricket match. Thankfully we were back in time to witness the Spanish performance.

Away from the matches themselves, what have I been doing to “while the time away”?

Well…..drum roll please….Foudys came through for me big style! My “KELLY 18” shirt arrived from them in mid-week. I’ve spent quite some time gawping at it since.

I spent far too much time trying to work out the correct travel adapter required for our trip. It seems that the standard two-pin European plug is not guaranteed to work everywhere in Switzerland – their plugs need a three-pin configuration, commonly called a “Type J” plug. So I have bought a couple of those that I can use to plug in my “world traveller” (apart from Switzerland it seems) adapter with its multiple USB outlets.

I have also been pottering about getting ready the things I’m taking on our adventure. Some of it is in my back-pack already – boxers, socks, wash bag, that kind of thing – and some is still to be packed. No doubt I will be emptying and reloading the teeny-tiny rucksack that #SonInlawNo1 says is all we can take owing to RyanAir’s (our return flight airline) “hand luggage” restrictions.

I may say more of that before we set off.

In the meantime….we have a game to watch in (checks watch, 1000 hours)…..ten hours from now.

C’mon England!