After finishing third at the 2015 World Cup, Mark Sampson’s squad launch their European championship campaign against Scotland in Utrecht on Wednesday

Gezelligheid. It is a guttural-sounding Dutch word which, broadly translated, conveys a sense of individual well-being shared with others and is said to capture the essence of national culture in the Netherlands.

England are hoping for a gezelligheid-suffused moment of their own three weeks on Sunday when Mark Sampson’s Lionesses aim to be in Enschede, contesting the final of Euro 2017.

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Their hosts, meanwhile, trust terrorist threats prove hollow. Security will be particularly tight when England play Scotland in their Group D opener on Wednesday night.

After finishing third in the 2015 World Cup in Canada Sampson’s players have arrived at their peaceful base amid the medieval, canal-bisected delights of Utrecht on a mission to win a first major tournament.

The Lonely Planet travel guide book is not alone in hailing England’s temporary home as one of Europe’s most unsung, underrated cities and similarly Sampson hopes to show his side’s ranking as the continent’s third best underestimates their ability.

Doing so will surely necessitate beating Germany and/or France during the knockout phase of a 16-team tournament staged across seven venues: Utrecht, Rotterdam, Breda, Tilburg, Doetinchem, Deventer and Enschede.

Germany have not only won eight of the 11 European championships but triumphed in the last six, and France, serial underachievers, are overcoming the flakiness which has undermined their undoubted talent. If Germany arguably possess in Dzsenifer Marozsán the world’s best midfielder, France’s Wendie Renard is probably its foremost defender.

“Germany will always be there or thereabouts but France are learning to progress in tournaments,” says England’s Fara Williams, whose penalty in a 1-0 win gave her side a rare victory over Germany in the 2015 World Cup third-place play-off. “We know we’re capable of beating leading teams but the margins between Europe’s top sides are small. Spain could surprise people; they’re really confident.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Germany’s Dzsenifer Marozsán, arguably the world’s best midfielder, in action against Brazil in a friendly to prepare for Euro 2017. Photograph: Daniel Kopatsch/EPA

England are grouped with Spain and the unfancied tournament debutants Scotland and Portugal and Sampson says: “We’re in a much better spot than 2015, in every area. In Canada we had three players [Lucy Bronze, Steph Houghton and Karen Bardsley] in the team of the tournament and finished third. Logic tells me we need five or six to finish first; I honestly believe we have that now.”

In Toni Duggan, an exuberant former Manchester City striker, he also has the first English footballer to join Barcelona since Gary Lineker 31 years ago. Nonetheless a certain fragility lurks beneath the glossy veneer expertly conjured by Channel 4’s eye-catching trailers for its impending, England-dominated, televised coverage.

This may be the first Lionesses squad to be fully professional – thanks to the combination of club and central England contracts, Sampson’s players earn in excess of £50,000 per annum, some considerably more, they stay in five-star hotels, fly business class and enjoy stellar medical attention – but the domestic game is approaching a potentially watershed fork in the road.

Although English Women’s Super League attendances are rising, growth is relatively slow; only City average more than 2,000 a game and some clubs’ median remains under 1,000. While super rich and heavily subsidised City and Chelsea occupy a gilded universe, Notts County have folded and Sunderland reverted to part-time status.

This backdrop dictates that, with the FA boosting investment in the women’s game to unprecedented levels, Sampson is under pressure to deliver before the new WSL season’s September kick-off.

Should England stumble, the 34-year-old Welshman will face awkward questions over his omission of the free-scoring but strong-willed Chelsea striker Eni Aluko and the recent redeployment of Marieanne Spacey, his former assistant.

Sampson, a tactically clever and courageous coach, feels a responsibility to maximise the legacy of numerous hard-fought battles won by his predecessor, Hope Powell, and Howard Wilkinson, the FA’s former technical director, which put the women’s game firmly on England’s football map.

“We couldn’t have got here without Hope,” says Williams. “Mark’s still having to knock on doors to get what we need but we’re certainly getting more than ever before. It can help us get further than we’ve ever been. It’s no coincidence that Germany are very well looked after; top European teams have the resources.

“When I started with England, we trained in a field where dogs chased you. We weren’t full-time but Hope made it seem like we were. She paid for regional coaches herself, she was always pushing and pushing to open doors.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Holland captain, Mandy van den Berg, pictured here at the 2015 World Cup, hopes the tournament in the Netherlands will ‘help us move more towards a professional women’s game’. Photograph: Stuart Franklin/FIFA via Getty Images

Sampson’s ability to kick them off their hinges has been partly facilitated by his inspired rotation, which airbrushes England’s technical imperfections while maintaining squad harmony.

“I’d call it smart rotation,” Williams says. “It keeps everyone happy, fresh and pushing themselves. Mark plays the right people at the right time, in the best ways, for specific games. Everyone plays a part.”

Sampson’s England, an extremely fit side, are also good tourists. Afforded considerable freedom in their downtime, players use it constructively, avoiding the sort of boredom-induced stir craziness which can undermine teams at major events.

Euro 2017 organisers hope concerns that an event celebrating precisely the sort of female liberation extremists so fear could be a terrorist target will not limit interaction between teams and fans – or attendances. Encouragingly Holland’s group games, starting with Norway in Utrecht in Sunday’s curtain raiser, are sold out.

Their captain, Mandy van den Berg, is thrilled to see female footballers adorning the cover of her country’s esteemed Voetbal International magazine, for the first time. “Women’s football’s growing fast here,” says the Reading defender. “Euro17 can help us move more towards a professional women’s game where everybody gets well paid, like in England.”

The time has come for Sampson’s Lionesses to prove their true worth by lifting some gezelligheid-creating silverware.