An emotional Mary Earps apologised to her England team-mates despite the Lionesses coming from behind to beat the Netherlands at Wembley.
The goalkeeper, who captained the Lionesses and has had an outstanding year for the national team, saw a soft shot from Netherlands forwards Lineth Beerensteyn slip through her fingers as the visitors took at two-goal lead before half time.
The Lionesses came roaring back after the break and won 3-2 thanks to Ella Toone’s stoppage-time strike, but England will head into Tuesday’s final Nations League fixture against Scotland knowing that the Netherlands remain in charge of the group.
England needed to beat the Dutch by two goals to take control of their Olympics qualification hopes but now need to either win against Scotland by three more goals than the Netherlands - or hope they fail to beat Belgium.
Earps was in tears after the game and held her hands up depsite England going on to secure victory at Wembley. “I thought the girls were unbelievable to come back into the game,” Earps told ITV. “I thought they were unbelievable.
“I am just sorry that my performance has cost the team tonight. That [second goal] will haunt me for a long time today, I am really gutted because it could have been a really special night.
“The team were unbelievable, don’t get me wrong, the goals are unbelievable, the way that they played and moved it around showed great patience at times, real tenacity, real intensity to the play.
Wiegman said Earps’ apology wasn unnecessary— (Action Images via Reuters)
“I am a competitor but when it is not good enough, it is not good enough and I can only apologise to my team-mates and to the fans, I take that fully with my whole chest.”
The apology was unnecessary for manager Sarina Wiegman, who said: “I spoke to her very shortly and I don’t want her to talk like that.
“We win as a team and lose as a team. That is part of the game. Of course she didn’t like the team down, everyone does her best. You only let the team down when you don’t put effort into the game and we never don’t put effort in.
“Everyone stepped up. We needed to step up as a team. I think everyone did that.”
