Carly Telford believes England are beginning to live up to their billing as one of the strongest teams on the continent.
The Lionesses finished third at the 2015 World Cup, the best finish by a European nation.
Mark Sampson’s side picked up a historic victory over World Cup holders USA in March and they sit fifth in the FIFA rankings.
And with England’s Euro 2017 opener against Scotland coming up in less than a month, Telford is bullish about their chances.She said: “There’s an expectation on us now to go and win every game – from the outside and from us ourselves. And I think we’re really starting to thrive on it.
“We believe in ourselves and it’s great to have that buzz around us going into a major tournament.
“We want to prove that we can win the big prizes, that we’re ready to bring the gold medal home and make people proud.”
England have one final warm-up match ahead of the Euros, against Denmark in Copenhagen on Saturday.
Sampson’s charges eased to a 4-0 win over Switzerland last time out and Telford reckons the nature of that performance would have sent out a message to the rest of Europe.
She added: “The Switzerland game was a great marker for us. We knew we would be up against a good team but we played really well and totally deserved the result in the end.
“We made Switzerland run for 90 minutes. They couldn’t get near us.
“I think we proved to a lot of people that we are ready for the tournament and ready to compete with, and beat, the best.
“We were stronger, fitter and faster than them and that’s exactly what we want to be when the tournament comes around.
“We want every other team to fear us.”
After Scotland, England will take on Spain in Breda on Sunday 23 July followed by Portugal in Tilburg four days later.
