England Men eased through the group stages of the 2025 Men’s European Lacrosse Championship with 100% winning record from their four group matches to come out on top of Group A.

Four victories against Bulgaria (26-0), Netherlands (16-4), Latvia (8-3), and Finland (20-5) saw the Lions finish as the number two seed overall, with only Group D winners Italy above England in the seedings by virtue of goal difference.

The number two seeding gives England a direct route through to the quarter-finals where they will meet France on Wednesday (Face off: 09:50 CET/08:50 UK) the number seven seeds, who narrowly beat Switzerland in their play-in match on Tuesday 8-7 after finishing second in their group behind Italy.

The team opened with a commanding 26-0 shut out win against European newcomers Bulgaria, before continuing with hot scoring streak with a 16-4 victory against the Netherlands.

As expected, Latvia proved a much sterner test in England’s third group match, after racing into a 3-0 lead, the Latvians fought their way back into the match, led by outstanding performance from their goalkeeper, England only led 5-3 at the 3/4 time.

However, England’s defence also remained strong throughout, generally restricting Latvia to outside shots, while the attack then rediscovered their scoring talents from the opening two games to hit three unanswered goals in the final quarter and pull away for a well-deserved win.

Finally, a fourth game in four days saw England get off to a bit of a slow start against Finland, going into the 1/4 time all tied up at 2-2.

But once again, the squad found their rhythm and began to deliver a ruthless exhibition in front of goal, hitting another 18 across the following three quarters for an impressive 20-5 win.

Danny Hilditch and Drew Bickerton are England’s top point scorers after the group stage with 16 each, (both 11G 5A); however, the depth of the English roster is apparent with a number of other players just behind them - Will Prescott (5G 10A), Alex Russell 14 (6G 8A), Dan Watson 13 (8G 5A) all in the top 30 point scorers, while no other country has more than three.

Tomorrow’s quarter final match up will prove another test for the England side with the added bonus of a win securing at least a Top 4 finish, and therefore a place at next year’s World Championship in Japan.

The winners of England’s quarter-final will then play the victors of the game between Israel and Latvia i the final four on Thursday.