The Women’s European Championships 2017 officially kicked off on Sunday and Liverpool Ladies’ Siobhan Chamberlain hopes England can go all the way.
The competition will see 16 teams from around Europe competing in the Netherlands, including Scotland and England.
Liverpool Ladies have five players in action at the tournament including Chamberlain, Casey Stoney and Alex Greenwood who will all be playing for England.
As well as the English trio, Shanice Van de Sanden is representing the Netherlands and Caroline Weir will line-up for Scotland.
Chamberlain joins Manchester City number one Karen Bardsley and Notts County’s Carly Telford as England’s goalkeeping options.
Greenwood bounced back from a long-term injury at the beginning of the year and will compete with several City defenders for a place in the starting XI.
Stoney signed for Liverpool ahead of the Spring Series and she is one of the most experienced seniors in the England squad.
Let's go @UEFAWomensEURO 2017! ??? #NEDNOR pic.twitter.com/05QjB1MPbk
— Siobhan ???? (@Sio_Chamberlain) July 16, 2017
England will play Scotland on Wednesday in their first of three Group D fixtures before they take on Spain and Portugal.
The first fixture will take place at Utrecht’s Stadion Galgenwaard between the two British sides, but it is Germany who have gone into the tournament as resounding favourites.
Germany have won the European Championships six times in a row and Chamberlain’s England side will need to give it all they have got to beat the current Olympic champions.
England also head into the competition in good form after going unbeaten in their eight qualifying matches.
They conceded just one goal and won seven matches in qualifying and they also finished in third place in the 2015 World Cup.
England manager Mark Sampson named his squad back in April and Chamberlain spoke to This Is Anfield on her Euro 2017 expectations and her fellow teammates from the Lionesses.
“It’s been a really exciting couple of months. I’m looking forward to competing in the Netherlands,” said Chamberlain.
“The Euros is a fantastic chance for the squad that we have got to show what we can do. We have a really good group of players.
“There will be more pressure on us this year as obviously, we did so well at the World Cup so it’s about how we embrace that and use that to help us perform.
“Hopefully we can go over to Holland and win it but there are plenty of strong teams in the competition so it won’t be easy.”
Speaking about Liverpool Ladies’ England representation, Chamberlain added, “Alex [Greenwood] has done well to come back from injury.
“She’s worked really hard for the last 10 months and has deservedly earned his call-up to the squad so I’m delighted for her.
“It’s tough when you’ve been out injured for such a long time but she’s come back in and done really well which is great.
“Casey [Stoney] signed for us this year and she is a fantastic professional. She’s a very experienced leader and commander in defence.
“She’s great to have as an addition at Liverpool as she’s really exciting to work with at England and now at club level too.”
Liverpool Ladies’ attacker Van de Sanden scored the winning goal in Netherlands’ opening match against Norway on Sunday evening to give the hosts a 1-0 victory.
GOOOOAAAL! Van de Sanden scores our first goal of #WEURO2017 #NEDNOR pic.twitter.com/2oi7IusOQT
— Eurosport (@eurosport) July 16, 2017
The remainder of Liverpool’s participants – Chamberlain, Greenwood, Stoney and Weir – will all be in action for the first time on Wednesday evening in the all-British encounter.
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