England squad named early

England Women manager Mark Sampson has chosen his Euro 2017 squad almost four months before the tournament begins.

The line-up will be made public on monday, after sampson decided it would benefit those involved to know they will be on the plane to Holland.

Scotland will face England at the Euros in Utrecht in their opening match on 19 July. The other teams in Group D are Spain and Portugal. Although the early announcement comes as a surprise, Sampson has indicated the 23-man party will have a familiar look.

Sampson said: “Looking at what I think it’s going to take to win the European Championship, one of the options we have is to name the squad at this moment in time.

“It gives us a real good opportunity in terms of time to work with the 23 players who are going to be coming to that tournament. We’ve worked hard to get a longer preparation period than we’ve ever had, so we’re meeting up on 5 June for an early July start.”

Scotland will name a squad today for the friendly against belgium on 11 April in Leuven.