Ella Toone: Back-to-back European Championships would be a 'dream'

Ella Toone said a back-to-back European Championship victory would be a dream as she prepares to face Spain in the final showdown in Basel on Sunday.

The 25-year-old scored the opener in the Lionesses’ 2-1 victory at Wembley in 2022 as they won their first major tournament trophy, and they could repeat the feat just three years later.

They face a rematch of their World Cup final defeat in 2023 as they lost 1-0 to Spain in Australia, and now they are aiming to avenge that with victory at St. Jakob Park.

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“[Back-to-back champions] is the dream. That’s the aim. You want to come into a tournament, and you want to put on performances,” said Toone.

“You want to make the country proud, and you want to inspire a generation and those were our aims for the tournament.

“We’ve got all this way, so we want to go out into the game and give it everything. No one wants to lose a football match, especially a final, so we’ll do everything we can to put on a performance.

“We’ll fight, we’ll believe in ourselves, we’ll have that togetherness like we always do, so we will hopefully get over the line.”

England’s route to the final has been far from straightforward with their quarter-finals and semi-finals both requiring extra time, and in the former, penalties, to decide them.

It has led to tense viewing for fans and family of the Lionesses alike. Against Sweden, Michelle Agyemang’s late equaliser saw England recover from a two-goal deficit to take the game to penalties.

Then in Geneva against Italy, Agyemang once more popped up to take the game to extra-time where Chloe Kelly struck the winner to send England to the final.

“It’s mad. I’m not all for the drama but we’ve definitely made it dramatic this tournament. Sometimes football’s not always how you want it to be,” said Toone.

“It would be lovely to win in 90 minutes, but the teams we’ve been playing against have been really tough and we’ve right until the very end.

“We’ve never given up and we like to add that little bit of drama. I know the fans at home we’ve probably given a heart attack.

“You can see the fight from the team that we want to win whatever game we play in.”

That fight has emerged from what the Lionesses are dubbing a ‘proper English mentality’.

It has come to sum up their approach to the positions they have found themselves in, seemingly escaping from scenarios they seemed destined to go out.

“We spoke a lot about a ‘proper English performance’ at this camp. We have it in us all individually and as a team that we want to fight, and we want to not stop running,” added Toone.

“You’ve seen that in games where it’s 90 minutes and it might look like we’re down and out, and then someone comes on and we have one moment, and we take that moment.

“That’s what it’s all about. It’s squad depth and players having that belief that they can come on and really change the game.

“But it’s all in us individually that we’re competitive and we want to win and we know what it takes to win in tournaments. That’s what we’ve managed to do and that’s what has got us to a third consecutive final.”

The Lionesses will face their toughest test yet in Basel as they meet the reigning world champions to defend their European crown.

Having faced each other twice already this year, the teams have one win each from their recent meetings, but Spain are yet to lose at Euro 2025 with a perfect record in their group.

They boast a midfield three of Patri Guijarro, Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati who play together at Barcelona and have looked unbeatable at times this tournament.

It will likely be Toone, Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh who come face-to-face with the trio, but they are under no illusion about their own strengths, too.

“In football, games can be won and lost in the midfield. We know that we have to be on our game,” said Toone.

“We have so much respect for [Patri, Putellas and Bonmati]. All three of them are world class players and are very talented.

“But we know what we’re capable of. Whoever plays in the midfield will do an important job. No matter what, we’ll go into that game, we’ll give 100% and we’ll fight like we always do.”