Is England vs Netherlands on TV? Kickoff, Team News, Predictions, how to watch the Lionesses tonight
England are back in action tonight and it’s a must-win game for the Lionesses. The team will face the Netherlands at Wembley and will be hunting a big win to keep hopes of topping their Women’s Nations League group and qualifying for next summer’s Olympics alive.
The Lionesses suffered a shock defeat to Belgium last month and were beaten by the Dutch in September. The team sit third in Group A1 after four games.
The poor run of results mean England must win against the Netherlands and away at Scotland on Tuesday – and even then it still might not be enough to top the group.
England are currently three points behind the Netherlands and one point behind Belgium with two games left. For Team GB to book a spot at next year’s Olympics, England must reach the Nations League final.
When is England vs Netherlands?
The Nations League fixture kicks off at 7:45pm on Friday 1 December at Wembley Stadium.
How can I watch it and what TV channel is it on?
The fixture will be shown live on ITV 4, with coverage kicking off from 7pm. It will also be available to stream live on the ITV X website.
What is the team news?
England will be without captain Millie Bright after she withdrew from the squad due to a knee injury. She has been replaced by Man United’s Millie Turner and Golden Glove winner Mary Earps will take over captain duties for the match.
Beth Mead returns to the squad for the first time in over a year after returning from an ACL injury. She’ll be in the running for a place alongside Lauren James, Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly – who are all in form.
For the Netherlands, Vivianne Miedema returns after her own ACL injury and could join Lieke Martens and Jill Roord in attack, but Andries Jonker is likely to stick with Juventus forward Lineth Beerensteyn.
Predicted line-ups
England: Earps; Bronze, Carter, Greenwood, Charles; Walsh, Stanway; Hemp, James, Kelly; Daly
Netherlands: Van Domselaar; Dijkstra, Spitse, Janssen; Pelova, Groenen, Van de Donk, Brugts; Roord; Beerensteyn, Martens
How can England finish top of Group A1?
The Lionesses must win against the Netherlands. Any other result and they are out of the running to top the group.
If England win, they will likely have to beat Scotland at Hampden next Tuesday: a draw at Hampden would only be enough if Belgium lose to Scotland and then draw against the Netherlands, and even then England would need to beat the Netherlands by two goals to take the head-to-head record.
If England win both games, they will have 12 points and would need Belgium to drop points either against Scotland or against the Netherlands. If England win both games but Belgium win both games, they cannot top the group.
If England win both games and the Netherlands beat Belgium, they will go through only if they win by two goals or better the Dutch’s 2-1 win from the return fixture. The Lionesses must do this to take the head-to-head record.
If both England and the Netherlands both finish on 12 points and with identical head-to-head records (ie both games are 2-1 home wins), then it will come down to overall goal difference in Group A1.
Coming into the final two rounds, England have a goal difference of 0 while the Netherlands have +5.
What would the Lionesses then need to do to qualify for the Olympics?
England must reach the Nations League final to be sure of their place at the Olympics next summer, as the nominated side for Team GB.
Both Nations League finalists will qualify for the Paris Games – unless one of those teams is France, who qualify automatically.
If France reach the Nations final, the automatic qualification spot will go to the winner of the third place playoff in the Nations League finals.
France, Denmark and Spain are top of Groups A2, A3 and A4 ahead of the final two rounds of fixtures.
How do the Lionesses avoid relegation, or a relegation play-off?
Scotland will be relegated automatically if they fail to win both games.
England will be forced to go through a relegation play-off if they finish 3rd in the group and fail to overtake either the Netherlands or Belgium.
Predictions
England 3 – 1 Netherlands
In front of a home crowd of more than 70,000 people, we expect this to be an exciting game with plenty of goals.
England must win by a decent margin and we’ll be expecting it.