It's on! Mary Earps vs Hannah Hampton & the intriguing battle to be Lionesses No.1 at Euro 2025

When England met up for the final time in 2023, this competition never even felt close. Earps was so secure in her role as the Lionesses’ first-choice goalkeeper, something emphasised by the reaction to her tearful post-match interview following a high-profile error against the Netherlands in December.

Victory by a two-goal margin in that game, rather than the 3-2 win achieved, would’ve made England’s chances of securing Olympic qualification much more straight-forward and, as a result, Earps was devastated that she hadn’t kept out the Dutch’s second of the night. "I'm just sorry that my performance has cost the team,” she said.

That was emphatically dismissed by every member of the Lionesses’ team that spoke to the media in the aftermath. After all, not only do England, in Wiegman’s words, “win as a team and lose as a team,” they also know that Earps has come up big to bail others out in her time as her country’s No.1. “In the World Cup final, I gave away a penalty and she saved it,” Keira Walsh said a few days later. “Mary has delivered before so I'm pretty sure she'll deliver again.”

It was those historically consistent performances as England goalkeeper which Walsh mentions that had helped Earps establish such an unassailable lead in the pecking order. At Euro 2022, 10 months into her status as No.1 after a couple of years in the international wilderness, the then-Manchester United shot-stopper was outstanding, marking herself out as one of the best in the world as England triumphed at Wembley.

That form continued at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, where Earps claimed the Golden Glove as the Lionesses reached the final. The individual accolades poured in during this time, and deservedly so, with her twice named The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper and able to achieve a highest-ever position for a goalkeeper in the Ballon d’Or Feminin voting, of fifth. Factoring in experience, performance in high pressure moments and consistency at club level, Earps was by far and away England’s best goalkeeper.

So when looking at how fierce the competition for that shirt is now, the question is about how Hampton has closed that gap rather than wondering what Earps has done to lose ground. While the latter has continued to perform well for club and country, Hampton has made simply incredible progress in just half a season.

Last summer, aged 22, she took something of a risk in leaving Aston Villa to join Chelsea. In the Midlands, she was first-choice and she was developing well, earning a spot in England’s Euro 2022 and 2023 World Cup squads as a result. At Chelsea, though, she would be competing with two other senior international goalkeepers, both with much more experience than her. At first, this meant she wasn’t even being named to matchday squads, never mind getting minutes.

Hampton’s situation was actually contributing to a bit of a problem for England, as Earps was the only one of Wiegman’s three regular goalkeepers, the other being Ellie Roebuck, who was actually playing for her club. “That makes it a little bit complicated,” Wiegman admitted in October. Comments from then-Chelsea boss Emma Hayes hardly suggested that Hampton was on the brink of a breakthrough with her minutes, either.

But when the 23-year-old eventually got her chance to debut for the Blues in December, she grabbed it with both hands. From that point onwards, no one kept more clean sheets in the Women’s Super League, despite a lot of enforced rotation occurring in the defence in front of her. Of goalkeepers who made more than five appearances in that time, Manchester City's Khiara Keating was the only one to boast a higher save percentage.

Usurping Ann-Katrin Berger, Chelsea’s long-time first-choice goalkeeper who would join U.S. side Gotham before the season was out, and Zecira Musovic, the Sweden star who shone at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Hampton became the Blues’ No.1 choice. “I genuinely believe Hannah has all the ability to become the best in the world,” Hayes said.

Hampton’s form didn’t go unnoticed in the England set-up, either. In February, she got a chance in a friendly. In April, Wiegman started her in a qualifier against Ireland - that being the coach’s first XI for a competitive match that didn’t feature Earps since September 2022. Slowly but surely, she impressed and proved that she was ready to thrive on the international stage.

But even six weeks ago, Earps remained in the driver’s seat and it was her name on the teamsheet when France came to town in late May for the toughest few days of England’s qualifying campaign. It’s hard not to feel like one of the most significant moments to date in this race to be the Lionesses’ No.1 came just a few minutes into that match, when Earps went down with a hip injury. That forced Wiegman to call upon Hampton in a huge moment, with her coming off the bench and being put up against one of the world’s best teams.

England lost the game 1-0 but there was nothing Hampton could do about the goal, with the memory of her performance from that day instead being a hugely impressive save to deny Maelle Lakrar. Four days later, with Earps sidelined, the 23-year-old caught the eye again as the Lionesses beat France away from home for the first time in 51 years, making a huge last-minute save to preserve all three points.

It'd be a shock if the way Hampton stepped up in that international break wasn’t a factor in Wiegman’s decision to play the young goalkeeper in both of England’s games this past week. It was there that she showed she could handle the big moments and she has only backed that up now. It’s no wonder that, on Tuesday night, Wiegman declared: “The competition is on. It’s really on.”

The Lionesses’ boss was keen to praise Earps on how “professional” she was when she got the news that Hampton would play in Sweden as she talked up the qualities that both can bring to the table. “They’re both incredible, talented goalkeepers that we’re really happy with,” she said. “So yes, now we’ve done this, there are three months until our next window. They’re going back to their clubs and we’ll see how that goes first, and then when they come in in October.”

After all, Wiegman dismissed the idea that whoever started in Sweden would lead this race to be England No.1, dubbing it “a little bit too early”. The players have big trust in whoever plays too, with Georgia Stanway saying in May: “You could play either one of them and you know exactly what you’re going to get, because they’re both world-class. I think that’s what’s special.”

So, with less than a year until Euro 2025 kicks off, who will start England’s first game in Switzerland? Moreover, how will this battle to be the Lionesses’ No.1 be decided?

On the one hand, in Earps, you have a goalkeeper who has done it on the biggest stages several times over, someone with tons of experience and a commanding presence behind the defence, who is a world-class shot-stopper.

On the other, in Hampton, there is a 23-year-old who could be England’s No.1 for the next 10 years, a young player who would benefit massively from such involvement in a major tournament, one who perhaps doesn’t have the presence of Earps but possesses equally good reflexes and superior distribution.

The margins are certainly fine in a race that looks set to be a photo-finish and, while she might find it tough to disappoint one of the two before Euro 2025, Wiegman will be delighted that Earps and Hampton are set to push each other this hard in the build-up to next summer – because it means whoever gets the nod to be England’s No.1 will be more than ready.