It’s Hampton v Earps: race to be England No 1 at Euro 2025 is on
The two goalkeepers have been rotated before but Wiegman selecting the 23-year-old Chelsea player for the game against Republic of Ireland felt significant
For a split second on Friday night, given the ferocity of the cheer coming from one corner of the stand behind the substitutes, you could have been forgiven for wondering if England had surreptitiously scored another goal in the Euro 2025 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland. Not quite. The din was merely in response to Mary Earps jogging down the touchline to warm up. The England fans’ love for the BBC sports personality of the year award winner is stratospheric.
And much later on Friday night, a quiet, touching moment offered a prime example of why Earps has such popularity. Long after full-time, the Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper was up in the stands, spending time making somebody’s week. She was speaking to a girl who was accompanied by a first-aider and who had been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. Earps had helped calm her down and put the biggest of smiles on her face with a simple act of kindness.
