At the Euros, winning teams can start badly. It’s how they respond that matters | Pernille Harder


France are favourites, but I like the look of Portugal. And the question for England is can they handle the pressure?

In an ideal world you would start a tournament perfectly and go through it winning everything. That’s what every team at the Euros wants to do. It is the pressure and expectation around that desire for perfection that derails so many teams and campaigns, because a loss early on becomes a big deal. But you can lose and progress. I was part of the Denmark team that showed that at the Euros in 2017: we lost to the Netherlands (who finished as champions) in our group but still got out of the group and reached the final.

How you cope with losing early on is important. If you lose a game you can’t let it get too deep, you can’t let the criticism and talk get to you. You have to move on to the next game, develop and improve through the tournament.

Related: Euro 2020 team guides part 6: Denmark

Related: How Portugal became a European super power in football | Andy Brassell

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