WOMEN'S EURO 2025: England bounce back in style

0:00Izzy Christiansen: At PwC, we optimize the systems that put your data to work so you can scale your AI from proof of concept to competitive edge and accelerate your tech evolution so you can redefine what's possible. From blueprint to breakthrough, we take you further with tech so you can outthink, outpace and outperform. PwC, so you can. PwC refers to the PwC network and or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Who says Halloween only lasts one day? With Wayfair, one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting to festive accents for every room in the house,

0:41Kit Shepard: Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place. Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night. They're made all season long. Shop Halloween decor now at Wayfair.com. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com. Way fair, every style, every home.

1:27Izzy Christiansen: a brilliant performance from Serena Vigman's side and preview the final group game against Wales. I'm Tom Clark and joining me, we have the women's football reporter for the Times and Sunday Times, Kit Shepard, and the former England international and Times columnist, Izzy Christensen, is with us too. Izzy, as a response to a disappointing opening game defeat against France, that could not have gone any better, could it?

1:52Kit Shepard: Absolutely. What a performance, what a result. against a top team. England certainly silenced any sort of critics. They put on a performance for themselves and they've got themselves right back into the mix and all to play for against Wales on Sunday.

2:10Izzy Christiansen: I just wanted to ask you, I mean, I don't know whether, I know you're close with the camp, did you ask them to listen to the podcast? Because I was watching that first half thinking, they've listened to Izzy say, this is a wake-up call. They've listened to Izzy say, this is a splash of water in the face. That's honestly what it looked like. I'm sure Serena Vigman gave them her own version of that, but it really looked like a team that had taken a really bad performance and almost turned it to their advantage.

2:36Kit Shepard: Well, needless to say, I don't think they needed me to tell them that they knew their performance against France wasn't on par at all. And then, obviously, they completely bounced back. I thought they just looked better all over the pitch. Kit, I know you were there. You probably felt it more than I could feel it back home. watching. But to me, you know, it just looked so much better, so much more pragmatic. There's obviously, I'm sure you'd want to get into the tactical stuff and to how they did it. But fundamentally, a lot of heart and aggressiveness and kind of soul went into that game. And it was much more like an England performance we're familiar with.

3:13Izzy Christiansen: I think very satisfyingly for Serena Wigman, she made three kind of significant tactical tweaks, which is all Izzy can explain with much more expertise. But she made three big tactical tweaks. They all seem to pay off. She moved Lauren James into the front line, starts her on the right wing and she scored twice and looked great. She therefore moved Elatoune into the number 10, which is where James was playing against France. Elatoune came into the side for Beth Mead and Elatoune just seemed to give the midfield a bit more balance and scored as well. And then at the back, maybe the one thing that we didn't talk about so much last Sunday when we chatted was switching Alex Greenwood and Jess Carter at left back and center back and that that seemed to work as well England kept a clean sheet so perfection doesn't exist but that was pretty close to it as an evening for England yeah Izzy just on that back four switch we talked about various different changes at the back and that difficulty that we'd had against France down uh our left hand side defensively you and Kit Kit talked about maybe a back three and things, but as Kit says, we didn't talk about that switch between Carter and Greenwood.

4:23Izzy Christiansen: Greenwood is obviously a player that you know really, really well. That's a position that she's very comfortable in anyway, isn't it? It's actually quite a simple but very effective move from Serena Vigman.

4:33Kit Shepard: Yeah, it was. And it wasn't done at the start of the game. It was done around 10 to 15 minutes into the game, if I remember rightly. Yeah, I thought it was a really smart move. I think they'd recognised quite early on in the game the threat of Miedema. and that she didn't pose the same threat in behind than France did. Therefore, adjusting Jess Carter to be tight on Miedema and add a bit more physicality and 1v1 aggressiveness was slightly more effective than having Alex Greenwood there. And it also meant in possession we had way more balance. And yeah, I think that Jess Carter and Alex Greenwood found a nice little partnership in the game this evening.

5:13Kit Shepard: and I think it just gave England good balance and you spoke about the midfield balance there but I thought they dealt with the threat of the Dutch really well in behind and nullified them and they almost didn't have any answers to the way that we played and I think, like you said there, a really satisfying performance. I'm sure Sreena Miegeman will be sleeping well tonight because that will have given her a lot of happiness.

5:35Izzy Christiansen: Yeah, we'll come back to some of those other tactical points in a minute but Kit, as he mentioned there, you were in the stadium. We were both watching it and as I said on telly, it looked like this is like a different England. This is like a different team. You talked in our preview shows about England being inconsistent. Are these two performances almost like the Jekyll and Hyde of this England team of the last kind of six months? Yeah, it sums up quite nicely for sure. It's another excellent performance that's followed one of the most disappointing results of the year. So it continues that trend of inconsistency, which they still need to work out if they're going to win three knockout games in the run.

6:10Izzy Christiansen: But this was so much more encouraging, admittedly, against probably a team that was a much better matchup for them than the French, not got quite the same level of kind of dynamism up front. But they're still an excellent team. They're still one of the tournament contenders. They've got players like Niedema who are superstars in the women's game. So there's a lot England can take from this. Maybe the thing that I thought they could really take from it was they've played a high stakes, really high stakes, high pressure game so early in the tournament. They passed with flying colours. So that's surely going to give them confidence for the high stakes games that are to come.

6:55Izzy Christiansen: That was the other thing that I took away from this watching this, Izzy, was that I thought back to our conversations around Serena Wiegmann and being a big game manager. and what she's instilled in this group of players that they can handle the pressure. And as Kit said there, it was all riding on this already after only two games and they had the perfect response. That says a lot about the mentality of this group, doesn't it?

7:17Kit Shepard: Yeah, and I think there was an aura of calm watching the players. You know, the snippets you get on television, you know, the camera panning to the management team, so you know, herself, the players. Kit, you were there probably watching the players warm up. to me there seemed to be an oozing sense of calm about them that like you said there Tom like really high pressure match like do or die basically in terms of the tournament progression plan and there was the the risk that they were going to be on a plane home on Monday morning back to the UK so there's a lot riding on that and to deal with that pressure absorb it and use it to your advantage but then ooze aura and calmness I think speaks a lot about the experience within the squad and Serena herself.

8:02Kit Shepard: She's been a little bit more animated in the dugout over the past couple of games, which I kind of like because I've got no issue with that because football's all about expressing emotion and I think that transmits to the players as well a little bit, but they've got a lovely balance in the team to sort of counterbalance that sort of emotion and be calm at the right times and also be aggressive and I think that blend was probably a bit more effective for England than it was against France.

8:27Izzy Christiansen: yeah Kit what do you make of that point Izzy's just made there about Wiegmann being a bit more animated because I've noticed it on telly as well watching it there's also the the tv cameras haven't done her many favors with lots of slow-mo you know swearing words that look like they're coming out of her mouth done in slow-mo on the telly which doesn't do her any favors but she she definitely is she's kicking every ball as the cliche goes isn't she yeah I think it's it's a reflection of a few things I think it's a reflection of England don't win all the time anymore, which is what they had done in the other two major tournaments under.

9:01Izzy Christiansen: They were on massive winning streaks going into those campaigns. I think there's just, as women's football grows, there's just naturally more pressure. The stakes are raised and people are going to react to that. And also they had come under quite a lot of criticism, both in the build-ups this tournament, which we've talked about loads, and then again after the France result last Saturday. And they'd have known, I think Serena said, she said before the match that they weren't thinking about the consequences, but then after the match she said the consequences were huge of this game. So it was, at least in the subconscious, they knew what was on the line after the France game and all the kind of criticism that would reignite if they lost again.

9:49Izzy Christiansen: and I think that explains why she has been a bit more animated. There was one moment early, I think it was when Russo headed an early chance wide and she really reacted to that, kind of like the anguish of missing a chance, which I've kind of seemed to suggest how much pressure was on this game. But yeah, as we say, they dealt with it pretty well. Izzy, just on that first half, there's loads of people we could pick out. any players in particular that you thought had really stepped up from the first game or just looked a bit more comfortable or a bit more on it?

10:23Kit Shepard: Anna Hampton.

10:24Izzy Christiansen: Oh, I'm so glad you said that. What a pass.

10:27Kit Shepard: Yeah.

10:28Izzy Christiansen: What a pass.

10:29Kit Shepard: I know, like, I don't like using this term, but I think it's important to use it because I want to give a wider context. She strikes the ball like a bloke. Like, and I'm not, I mean just like the power and the technique is so natural. and I just think her distribution, we've not, I've seen it in a Chelsea shirt over the years. I played with her at England as well. She was on a few training camps with us in a very early stage of international career and like the way she strikes the ball, I don't know, it's just so seamless. She's got such fantastic technique and to delve into that and use it, you know, in the system that England played and the tactics for tonight's game, it was to find Russo early or to spray it either side to the wing-backs or, sorry, full-backs pushing on or into midfield.

11:20And it just worked.

11:22Kit Shepard: But when you've got a goalkeeper that can do that, like, with such pinpoint accuracy and the pace on the ball as well, I've seen a lot of goalkeepers do it, that they lock the pass over. And when you lock the pass, it gives the defending team more time to arrive on the play who's receiving the ball. But because she fizzes the ball, the trajectory just, like, lands exactly where she needs it to land. And then the player receiving can just play forward. And we saw with the first goal, Russo timing her run exceptionally well. She was about a yard into the Dutch half on the absolute shoulder of the last player.

11:57Kit Shepard: And she arrives onto the ball, spins into the space. Brilliant. And also, I think that was so clever from Wiegmann because I don't think the two Dutch centre-backs, for me, cut the mustard at all. I think Jansen can be erratic. She's been good this season at United, but I think she's erratic and a little bit laxadaisical at times. And I think they exposed that weakness. And then over to you, Lauren James, go and open the scoring. Cut inside on your left foot. And she was like, yeah, okay, I will do that.

12:25Izzy Christiansen: I mean, that was never in doubt, was it? As soon as Lauren James got the ball, I thought this is going in, even though she had loads of defenders in front of her. I mean, Kit, just quickly back to Hampton. As Izzy makes the point there, it's interesting to be, I love modern football. On the first show, we were talking about all the outfield players not being able to hit a pass. And now we're on the second show talking about the goalkeeper being the best passer in the team, fizzing absolutely brilliant 40-yard, 50-yard passes. But this is a real strength of hers, isn't it? You know, so much was made before the tournament about her displacing Mary Earps.

12:56Izzy Christiansen: She's a great shot stopper, but in modern football, having a goalkeeper who can pass like that is a huge, huge bonus. Yeah, the very, very oversimplified version of the Earps v. Hampton debate of the last 12 months has been I mean, maybe a bit better at shot stopping Hampton a lot better with the ball of her feet. And again, that's simplifying a lot, but that was kind of how it was framed. Um, and Hampton kind of showed that tonight though, that she's someone that played as an outfielder at the very start of her youth career. She's someone that I think can train with outfielders sometimes as you might know, might know that in more detail, but sometimes she mixes in with the outfielders and training.

13:40Izzy Christiansen: she's excellent with the ball at her feet. And I think to record an assist like that and just show your distribution so kind of emphatically will do her so much good because, again, going to that kind of, that number one debate we've had, she's kind of proved her case perfectly there that what Sreena's always right all along, that, yeah, that distribution is kind of unmatched. And she displayed it on the biggest stage.

14:09Kit Shepard: what's interesting about that just briefly on that is that when you switch carter and greenwood over and play carter center back greenwood left back you lose alex greenwood's distribution at center back yes carter like she's got the strength but her one of her strength isn't playing out from the back like alex greenwood that's probably her super strength and then that when that tweak happened and they were flipped and hampton then comes into the game as like a ball playing center are back but from obviously the goalkeeping position it just goes to show that like if you make the tweak you compromise something but then you can make up for the deficit in another area and that's exactly where Hannah Hampton started to come into the game yeah and then coming back

14:52Izzy Christiansen: to that goal we I diverted us back to Hannah Hampton but now let's talk about Lauren James she showed glimpses of it in that first game against France that if you get other ball in dangerous areas she can hurt teams is he that first goal I kind of said when she got hold of that ball I thought this is going to end up in the top corner and it did but she is that type of player isn't she for people who are listening who are maybe aware of how good she is she is that type of footballer isn't she she can make that happen even if she's got players in front of her drop a shoulder make a bit of space bang top corner she can do that yeah I mean playing her

15:26Kit Shepard: on the right like gives her that license it goes without saying like she can cut inside move on to left to make it happen and just the disruption of russo's run allows that space um it's like clockwork and i'll i mean you called it there tom you said you saw it come in and you even called the top corner i can only say as she traversed inside i could i called it and said goal but i wasn't as pinpoint as you and saying i don't know which corner i think i'm being i think i'm maybe

15:55Izzy Christiansen: being a bit retrospective there is he but i definitely thought i definitely thought she was going to score.

16:00Kit Shepard: I did as well and it just had that feeling about it and her celebration as well kind of I don't know it just epitomised the calamity I think that England were demonstrating. Yeah, yeah.

16:12Izzy Christiansen: Kit what did you make of that start? I mean that was a great goal but it was just such a commanding first half performance wasn't it? Yeah that started brightly before the goal I mentioned that that Rousseau chance there were a couple of others I think Hemp had a decent penalty shout probably fairly not given And yeah, they just, they just started in the front foot and never looked back. Once they weren't won a lot, they crucially won by more than one as well. I think it's, it's good to stress because that means it's now completely in their hands going into the final match. It's not going to come into a goal difference battle.

16:44Izzy Christiansen: If they beat Wales, they will definitely be through. And, and then they didn't just win by two. They, they, they kept, they kept going and added, added a third and a fourth and made at a really emphatic and confidence-boosting win that, again, that can only be a really, really helpful thing to come out so well from a match where your tournament was on the line. We've mentioned her a couple of times. I just wanted to briefly mention Alessia Russo because I thought it was another great performance, a hat-trick of assists. No goal, as you said, Kit, missing that first chance early on, which she will be gutted by.

17:17Izzy Christiansen: But Izzy, I thought she played quite well against France. she was one of the few bright sparks in terms of her work rate. She is incredibly important to this England team, isn't she? Even though we're now two games in and she hasn't scored.

17:30Kit Shepard: Yeah, she's integral. She's almost like, I think down the spine of the team, you look at Hampton, Williamson, Walsh, Russo. I think England need those four down the middle in order to function the way they want to play. And Serena Vigman can tweak either side and around that. but I think that's the spine of the team. Rousseau has worked so hard to get herself into that position where she's performing at that level consistently in an England shirt and an Arsenal shirt as well. I think she offers so much. She's so versatile in the way she plays in that role that she gives, I mean, technical consistency is tactical variation and she's got herself so consistent now that Serena Vigman can tweak her role.

18:18Kit Shepard: and she's just proving why she is up there with one of the best strikers in Europe right now and probably if not the world and it's actually really great to see because I saw her game over the last few seasons sort of be a little bit up and down and you can see the talent is there but piecing it all together I just think she's in a super place right now and you know it's showing and I'm proper happy for her because I know how hard she's worked to get to that point

18:45Izzy Christiansen: Yeah, I'm sure the goals will come. We're going to take a little break. We're going to come back and talk about that final group game against Wales. But it's time for a quiz question just for Kit Shepard. See if he can get this one. He's nought from two so far, ladies and gentlemen. Nought from one, if you want to say that, Kit. That's fine. Anyway, here we go. Alessi Russo might not have scored yet in this tournament, but how many goals did she score in Euro 2022? Find out after the break.

19:21Izzy Christiansen: at pwc we optimize the systems that put your data to work so you can scale your ai from proof of concept to competitive edge and accelerate your tech evolution so you can redefine what's possible from blueprint to breakthrough we take you further with tech so you can out think outpace and outperform. PWC. So you can. PWC refers to the PWC network and or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Who says Halloween only lasts one day? With Wayfair, one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting

20:00Kit Shepard: to festive accents for every room in the house, Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place. Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night. They're made all season long. Shop Halloween decor now at Wayfair.com. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home.

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21:07Izzy Christiansen: Welcome back to the Game Football Podcast from The Times. I'm Tom Clark and I've got Izzy Christensen and Kit Shepard with me. Kit, England are back on track. So is Kit Shepard. He's got a quiz question right. We are up and running in Euro 2025. Alessio Russo in 2022 scored how many goals? The same number as England scored tonight. Four. Four goals. Well done, Kit. We're off and running. Thank God for that. Well done, Kit. Izzy, I don't know about you. I'm relieved for him, aren't we?

21:36Kit Shepard: Yeah, I'm happy for him. Pressure was on.

21:37Izzy Christiansen: Pressure was on.

21:38Kit Shepard: I got a splash of cold water.

21:41Izzy Christiansen: he's back on track it's the luck of it's the luck of being in zurich because the one i got wrong was in times towers in london so clearly that was the problem so what you're saying is you need to stay in zurich all right i'll speak to the powers that be and see if you can stay out there i'm not i'm i'm not sure the pattern of powers that be when i when i see some of the prices would agree but okay that's not for me we'll take we'll take this offline uh let's back to the game the win against the Netherlands. Izzy, I just wanted to quickly ask about the Netherlands and their performance because I do think it's important to put it into context for casual listeners.

22:15Izzy Christiansen: Everyone will have listened to our preview talking about the group of death. France definitely proved that with their performance. Netherlands, I would say as good as England were, they will be disappointed with that showing, won't they?

22:27Kit Shepard: Without a doubt, yeah. I thought they were really poor by their standards. Slow to the ball, loose in possession, not really any plan B. defensively exposed. But yeah, no, England really turned the screw. But I think there was an element of the Netherlands not living up to anywhere near what they could be capable of. And the other thing as well, just quickly on that, is that England obviously played the first match against France with such a high intensity. And then Netherlands didn't against Wales. It was quite a game of attack versus defence, if you like. So I wonder whether that had a part to play in it because England bring their levels up from the France game and the Netherlands had to really bring their levels up in order to match England and I just don't think they could get near them.

23:10Kit Shepard: So yeah, it showed and they've got a very difficult task to go and beat France.

23:15Izzy Christiansen: Which is a point, it's interesting, you made that in the preview show thinking about that idea that England maybe had their hardest game first. Do you think that's being shown now that as a pro at the very highest level, actually if you start with your levels really, really high, that actually serves you better even if you might lose the game? Do you think that's maybe being proved right? Yep, I think so.

23:38Kit Shepard: I think it's always good to start at a really big intensity because then you get a really good idea and gauge of where you're at and what you need to do to improve. And I just think it was exactly the wake-up calling needed and we obviously got a response tonight.

23:51Izzy Christiansen: Yeah. Kick, back to the team and back to some of those changes we made. Elatoon into the side, obviously very impressive in some of the warm-up games, particularly that big win against Jamaica. do we stick with what we've got now? Does Serena Vigman stick with what she's picked for this? Will she make changes for Wales do we think? I think you stick with the rough outline of the teams that involves keeping James in the front line and playing an Elatoon or an Elatoon-like player in midfield which I suppose would be Grace Clinton or maybe Jess Park but just someone that's more natural midfielder than Lauren James essentially.

24:30Izzy Christiansen: so yes I think they will keep the same spine of the team it will be interesting to see whether Serena rotates at all against Wales because we've seen Wales lose by three goals twice now and England should expect to beat them comfortably but England still do need to win the game to get through so they can't get complacent or try and be too cute with it so I think you'll probably in the ideal scenario I think maybe play a first choice 11 for the first half against Wales, get the game wrapped up and then see if you can maybe experiment a bit after the break. But yeah, they can't get too greedy because they're not free yet.

25:10Izzy Christiansen: Izzy, do you agree with that?

25:11Kit Shepard: Yeah, I think that's a very smart approach. Agreed. I don't think there's any space to be complacent. We saw France this evening change their 11 quite drastically from the England game. and they had their splash of cold water when Wales equalised against them. And at that point, then you think, hang on a minute, should Bonaday made all those changes? But obviously they managed to get the result in the end and get the points. But yeah, no, I think there won't be any space for complacency. I think Serena Bigam will want to resume momentum. Like you say, Kit, definitely introduce players in the second half if things are going as anticipated and as England fans hope.

25:53Kit Shepard: Because there is a different dynamic attached to that Wales game. And I think you have to be really wary of the threat that they pose emotionally because of it being Wales v England. And Wales have the opportunity to completely disrupt England's progress into the knockouts, which I'm sure is probably on whiteboards all around their meeting rooms, maybe in their hotel corridors. And that's something which Welsh sports tend to like doing is beating the English, and rightly so, because that's what a sporting rivalry is all about.

26:24Izzy Christiansen: Absolutely. Kit, just on some of those substitutes and some of the players we saw tonight, obviously they got the game kind of wrapped up. It felt slightly like the game was wrapped up once Georgia Stanway made it 2-0 in some respects, but it was definitely wrapped up just after the hour mark. What did you see from any of the players that came on? I thought Clinton looked bright again in midfield, good energy levels. Did you see any of the players there that you start to think are making a case to be starting or being the first subs off the bench? I always think Chloe Kelly has something to offer, partly for Dara Running Bull.

27:02Izzy Christiansen: So I think the more intangible side of the game she brings, she's someone that seems to be one of those players that has a knack for delivering in the big moments, obviously most famously at the Euros final, but she's done it in other big games for England. She performed really well for Arsenal and that Champions League run last season. So I'm always, I'm never against kind of chucking her on, especially against teams where you maybe need a little bit of bite off the bench as well and a bit of a nasty side. I think she provides that as well as lots of beautiful technical attacking play too. So yeah, I'm looking at her.

27:41Izzy Christiansen: But I think that starting XI we saw tonight will take some shifting just broadly. There might be one or two changes, but I think considering Ace, Serena didn't make wholesale changes after the poor performance against France and then the team she stuck with played so well against the Netherlands. I think it would take something drastic for that starting 11 to shift significantly over the rest of the tournament.

28:08Kit Shepard: and you'd wonder whether sorry no go for it like perhaps looking at players that have returned from injury in Lauren James and Georgia Stanway whether they might be taken out of the 11 and replaced like maybe with Clinton and maybe like you say a Kelly or a Beth Mead just to sort of manage that sort of loading on their return but yeah I totally agree with Kit I think yeah it can take some shifting to move that and the Ella Toon thing I mean, I know I was screaming out for Grace Quinton to play. I still believe in that. I think it just made total sense with hindsight and with what Serena Meegman thought around.

28:48Kit Shepard: It was purely, I imagine, based on midfield balance and the two-Stanway-Walsh combination. It's probably the most secure, balanced midfield in terms of minutes played together as a three. And that's probably why Serena reverted to that tonight and just thought, I'm going to stick to what I know, and it paid off.

29:03Izzy Christiansen: I was just going to say, that was a really good point about England have got a lot of players who just come out of long-term injuries and their fitness will still need to be managed to an extent. If they, I just looked up, if they finish top of the group, their course final will be on the 19th of July. If they finish runner-up, the course final will be on the 17th of July. So that would obviously give them what seems a very nice kind of extra two days off in between the group stage and knockout stage. It obviously also means their called semi and final would be more condensed. But that could be additional motivation to win the group.

29:42Izzy Christiansen: But equally, winning Group D probably means you're going to end up in the same half of the draw of Spain. So I don't know if that would cross their minds either, but I'm sure they'll just want to win the game. Listen, Kit, after that first game, the fact we're talking about getting into the knockout stages, I'm delighted with that. I'll take that at this stage. I was just saying, we're not even talking about getting into knockout stages. I'm talking about whether they should consider finishing second to avoid playing Spain. Getting into the tactics of where to finish, that is where we're now into the more positives.

30:13Izzy Christiansen: Kit, just before we finish with a few predictions for this final game against Wales, how was Serena Vigman in the post-match press conferences after this game? Presumably much brighter than she had been, or is she always quite a level-headed character? No, she's always quite level-headed. I think she was surprisingly maybe upbeat. She's strung a lot after France. She was quite kind of philosophical about it all, said they didn't play well, but wasn't trying to kind of make too big a deal out of it. And tonight was sort of the same, to be honest. She was insane. Yeah, we've solved all our problems and we're going to go and win the Euros either.

30:50Izzy Christiansen: And that's probably why or part of the reason why she's had so much success in these major tournaments. She's able to kind of roll off the punches and not get too high when things go well and not panic too much when they don't. So yeah, it wasn't any fireworks in the press conference, but yeah, the mood was upbeat. Yeah, right then. Well, England have won 4-0. Wales have lost 4-1 against France. They face each other in the final group game at the weekend. Izzy, predictions? Ooh, 3-0 England. 3-0 England, a very modest 3-0 England. I think Wales might score. They showed a lot of fight and a lot of heart against France.

31:29Izzy Christiansen: I think they might get a goal, but I'm going 4-1 England. Kit, how about you? 5-0. 5-0! You can tell Kit's back and excited. It's been a long day. It's been a long day. He's got that quiz question right and he is absolutely buzzing. We will see what England have got in store for us at the weekend, but we'll leave it there. Izzy Christensen and Kit Shepard, thank you very much for joining me. Thank you too for listening. Keep an eye out on the Times website for Izzy's next column. I'll be back on Friday to discuss the Club World Cup with Pete Rutzler and we'll all be back on Monday to discuss that final group game against Wales.

32:03Izzy Christiansen: We'll see you then.

32:11Izzy Christiansen: At PwC, we optimise the systems that put your data to work so you can scale your AI from proof of concept to competitive edge and accelerate your tech evolution so you can redefine what's possible. From blueprint to breakthrough, we take you further with tech so you can outthink, outpace, and outperform. PwC, so you can. PwC refers to the PwC network and or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Who says Halloween only lasts one day? With Wayfair, one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting to festive accents for every room in the house, Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place.

32:57Izzy Christiansen: Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night.

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