Williamson: 'We care so much'

EURO 2025 has been a tougher tournament for us – not so plain sailing and I’m very proud. Everything has gotten better and we had to be better.

The moments that have come out of this tournament and the people that they’ve happened for, there’s just amazing stories everywhere you look. Obviously, we’re on the inside and I know what people have done to be here and just the way that everybody wants to play their role.

There’s been some magic on offer and I’m very grateful to have been a part of it. I can’t imagine how amazing it is for fans to watch let alone to be a part of. There’s been a lot of late nights I can imagine – people staying up and being sort of being on such a high, so I can imagine there’s been some explanations needed at work, so I do apologise for that.

I think once you do what this team had done and you’ve come back before, that’s just always in the bank and you can call on it whenever you need. It’s just this belief. I think I said after the semi-final, it’s not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’ and ‘how’. That’s how it feels. Football’s football and anything can happen but for us, it’s just stitched into the environment.

I think 2022 was the first time and that was something we were very aware of. We knew that the best impact we could have was to win. Of course, we did it for ourselves and the team but we did it for everybody. We still feel like that now.

We want people to enjoy watching us play football, we want them to come on this incredible ride but as footballers to go and do something or be involved in something of this magnitude again, I suppose that’s the difference now that I would be aware of that I missed out on last time that I would want to really just take this day in for me and for my team-mates and be present with my team-mates.

I think this tournament has been different in that sense for me. I’ve wanted to be around it as much as I can whilst also preparing and doing my own thing to be ready for the game – the social aspect and just being with this group of girls.

In 2022, you look ahead and you think, ‘there’ll be more’ and then so much has happened since that now, I didn’t want to waste anything of this tournament because I appreciate being here and I know what it’s like not to be and to miss out.

Ready to lead us into Sunday's final. 👊 pic.twitter.com/sqrqDW3dev

— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 26, 2025

For me personally in this tournament, I’ve spoken about – since the return from my ACL – just loving playing for England. Going to a tournament, I’ve always known it’s the best thing in the world but it really is. The opportunity that you have to make memories is the best part of my job and it’s the hardest part, being away from home and being away from my people and having to navigate that, you learn a lot about yourself.

Beth might be able to correct me on this on where our hand-holding ritual before the warm-up started but she did her ACL before me and I did mine afterwards. We always pass to each other in the warm-up at club and country and I had to find somebody else to pass with for a long time while she was out and she had to wait for me to come back.

It’s just that reminder that we both play for people that we’ve lost and we carry them with us on the pitch and we have each other’s back. Nothing’s more important than the fact that you’re a human being going out to do something that you love and it’s just a reminder before we go out and turn into different people because that’s what the game requires.

I think having a basecamp and having somewhere you always come home to is amazing at a tournament. It works really well for us. I think the environment hat we’ve created, everyone has their own space but real nice moments where we all come together. Switching off between the games, if you can do that well, is like a super strength at a tournament.

For this final, having been in finals before, I think we’re going to go out and we’re going to try our best and that’s something we don’t even have to think about. We care so much about what we’re doing.

Walking out in a final, you have to look at it as an opportunity and less of a pressurised situation. Everybody outside of those changing rooms will create the noise and add this, that and the other to the game and you have to remember that you literally have a game of football to go and play. You would dream to be in that situation. My best advice even to myself would be to remember to enjoy it.