Final group games 'massive' for England - Russo

Alessia Russo has scored two of England's six goals in their Euro 2025 qualifying campaign

Alessia Russo says England have two "massive" games ahead if they are to achieve their "goal" of automatic qualification for Euro 2025 in Switzerland.

The Lionesses are third in Group A3, trailing second-placed Sweden on goal difference.

The defending European champions round off their group schedule by facing the Republic of Ireland in Norwich on Friday (20:00 BST) before taking on Sweden in Gothenburg four days later.

Two wins would be enough to guarantee England's spot at the tournament next July, but finishing outside the top two in the group would leave Sarina Wiegman's side needing to go through a play-off to qualify.

"[Automatic qualification] is what we want, we want to be qualified, look forward to that and have a focus on it," said Arsenal striker Russo.

"This group's tough, but ultimately that's the goal."

England took only four points from their first three games in the group, before a 2-1 victory against France in Saint-Etienne on 4 June boosted their qualification hopes.

Russo added: "We put in a performance that we needed and we wanted to as a nation.

"It was great to get a win and get our standards back to where we wanted them, because we have very high standards as a team and as players.

"These two games are massive as well. Preparations have been good. You want to be competing in big games, you want to be playing top opposition and that's what we've got in this group."

Russo said the Republic of Ireland, who were beaten 2-0 by England in Dublin in the reverse fixture in April, will "definitely not be an easy test".

She said: "When you meet teams twice in a short space of time, you take things from the games that you want to work on or do better.

"Although things might change from game to game, principles often stay the same.

"It's good to have those games, review them, reflect on them as a team and put new things into practice going forward."