The 24-year-old reflects on a year in the States, why she played just seven days after the Euros final and how success has changed her outlookFor most England fans, Euro 2025 was a stressful watch. The Lionesses stared elimination in the face at various points in Switzerland, navigating three lots of extra time and two penalty shootouts before eventually defending their European title. Esme Morgan, though, was always calm. That’s because she had a feeling it was going to be England’s year – a feeling that has yet to let her down.“Sometimes I get these gut feelings,” Morgan explains, speaking to GOAL while the triumph is still less than three weeks’ old. “Whenever I feel that we’re going to win, it’s never before been wrong.” It came to her before the quarter-final victory over Sweden, in which Morgan was a vital sub as England turned around a 2-0 deficit, and again prior to the semi-final meeting with Italy, where she played a key role as a starter. Then, after learning that it would be Spain in the final, it returned. “I woke up that next morning and I just knew we were going to win,” she recalls. “So for the next three days, I was just telling all the girls, ‘We’re going to do it. I can feel it’. It’s not something you can really explain. It’s not something tangible; it’s just a sense. So I never really reached the point of panic in any of those games. I just maintained the belief and stayed calm all through it.”Whether due to Morgan’s prophetic predictions – which star winger Lauren Hemp became particularly “dependent” on – or not, the entire England team was clearly possessed by the same tranquillity, something which undoubtedly played a big role in the remarkable escapology Sarina Wiegman’s side were able to perform on their way to a second successive continental crown.Recommended external contentVideoWe need your consent to show you content our Editorial team embedded from Video. You can toggle this (and all other embeds from Video across goal.com) on with one click only and deactivate as well.Always display Video contentI confirm that I would like to see external content. Personal identifiable data could be transferred to Third parties. Read more about it in our privacy policy.For most individuals in the Lionesses’ squad, it was a perfect way for their 2024-25 season to end. For the likes of Hannah Hampton and Lucy Bronze, it came after a treble-winning campaign with Chelsea, while it was a second European title of the summer for Arsenal stars such as Alessia Russo and Leah Williamson, who helped the Gunners beat Barcelona in the Champions League final just two months prior.Morgan, though, plies her trade in the United States, where her season with the Washington Spirit began in March and will end in November – and, as her return to action at club level just seven days after the European Championship final shows, success with England has only made the 24-year-old more determined to end the year on a high, by winning the NWSL Championship.
