Alessia Russo says the ‘sky is the limit’ for England after huge Euros win | OneFootball

Alessia Russo believes the sky is the limit for the Lionesses as they revived their Euros hopes with an impressive 4-0 victory over the Netherlands.

Sarina Wiegman’s side went in to their second game in must-win territory after a lacklustre performance in their opening clash, which they lost 2-1 to France.

But the Lionesses found their stride again and netted four on Wednesday in Zurich, with Russo getting three assists and picking up the ‘Player of the Match’ award.

“After the France game we looked at ourselves a lot as individuals and how we can all be better within the team,” Russo said.

“So going into this game, we wanted to start with that, setting our own standards high on and off the ball, and we definitely did that.

“And when that’s our standard as a team, then the sky’s the limit. I think when we’re at our best is when we stick together, we’re good on the ball, we create chances, and we’re dominant at the back. And I think we had all of that today.”

Russo’s Lionesses team-mate Georgia Stanway spoke earlier in the week about her side wanting to returning to being “proper England” in their performance.

Russo added: “I think proper English to us just means we’ll work hard, we’ll work until we can’t run anymore.

“We stick together and we know we’re very dominant on the ball as well. I think returning to that, that’s our standard and our DNA as a team.

“We definitely saw that today from the first minute right until the end, everyone was working so hard. We were really dominant and clinical with our chances that we had as well and probably could have scored even more as well.

“It was definitely something that we wanted to return to our roots and we know that we’re capable of performances like that.”

After being sidelined for three months with injury, Lauren James made her first start in Saturday’s match against France.

And the Chelsea forward showed her quality on Wednesday night against the Netherlands as she opened the scoring in Zurich with a stunning strike after Russo had played her in, before James bagged a brace in the 60th minute.

“We see her [Lauren James] do that in training all the time,” Russo added.

“When LJ is in that area, I’m going to give her the ball because she creates something out of nothing like she did with that first finish.

“When you give her the ball in those kinds of areas, you know she can hit it off both feet as well. So yeah, I want to find LJ in those areas as much as I can, I think we all do. As soon as she hit it, I think we all knew it was going in. She’s a special player and a great talent.”