England Ladies lose Euro 2025 opener: Leah Williamson says Lionesses ‘weren’t ok’ in opposition to France | Soccer Information

England Ladies captain Leah Williamson mentioned the Lionesses “weren’t ok” as they misplaced their Euros 2025 opener to France.

England had been the primary defending champions to misplaced their opening recreation of a following match, overwhelmed 2-1 by the spectacular French in Zurich.

There have been numerous points within the Lionesses recreation, together with defending on each wings that led to targets from Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore.

Reflecting on the explanations behind England’s below-par efficiency, Williamson informed ITV Sport: “We misplaced a recreation. Low cost defending one-vs-one. Not ok. We could not preserve it within the areas we wanted to maintain it.

“We discovered from these errors in equity and grew into the sport, however on the ball we weren’t ok. We received higher as they drained, we took benefit of that, however not sufficient.

“Generally that occurs, the constructive is that I’ve not seen us like that when it comes to turning the ball over a lot for some time now. It is actually irritating, I feel that is how we take it, however tomorrow we’re again on it.

“I feel all people takes accountability for themselves right now, take a look what was the world that they might have had an impression on the sport extra.

“I’ll, however I feel then tomorrow we’ve got a brand new recreation plan, totally different areas out there, totally different kind of opposition.”

Wiegman: We performed ourselves out of the sport

For her half, England head coach Sarina Wiegman didn’t consider the defending down both wing was England’s greatest concern, including that total sloppiness additionally contributed to the end result.

She informed ITV Sport: “I am very dissatisfied in regards to the end result. I believed we began rather well, scored a objective and sadly, it did not depend.

“Then we performed ourselves out of the sport by enjoying quick passes, which actually helped them and never being tight sufficient. We would have liked to get out of that first press and skip and I feel that harmed us a bit.

“The large areas weren’t the largest downside. We began rather well after which we began enjoying quick passes, and that is what they wished, as a result of they wished to press. So we wanted to get in behind them and attempt to skip the press, however we misplaced. We had been too sloppy and that did not assist us – it helped them.

“Then we all know how good they’re within the counter-attack. They’re highly effective and quick gamers. That is what they did rather well.”

England should now win their subsequent Group D recreation in opposition to the Netherlands on Wednesday to maintain themselves within the operating for a spot within the knockout rounds.

Wiegman is aware of her aspect can’t afford any extra errors, however should transfer on shortly with one other recreation in 4 days.

“I feel we are able to do higher,” she added. “France are actually good however we brought about a little bit of our personal issues and and we may have scored within the first minutes.

“We will do higher, positively, and we’ve got to make it slightly bit simpler for ourselves. We will not afford to make any extra errors going ahead? That is right.

“These are the info, we’ve got to step up, and tomorrow we assessment, we get better, after which it is straight to the sport in opposition to the Netherlands on Wednesday. Now we should stick collectively, do the restoration and transfer on.”

Bonadei shocked by England strategy

France head coach Laurent Bonadei, who took over the crew final yr from former coach Herve Renard, mentioned his crew had been shocked by England’s strategy.

“England are a very good crew,” he mentioned. “They’re fifth on this planet rankings and gained the final Euros so we’ve got to respect this crew.

“They began rather well and put stress on us from kick-off. We had been slightly bit shocked as a result of usually they play with build-up from Keira Walsh in midfield so it was actually onerous as a result of we had been underneath stress, and we conceded. Fortunately for us it was dominated out.

“Then slowly, step-by-step, we got here again with our ahead gamers and had our implausible objective on the right-hand aspect. Bodily, it was not straightforward for the England crew as a result of we performed extra direct in midfield. We stored calm and scored a second objective.

“Within the second half, we managed the sport as a result of they solely had two pictures heading in the right direction. On the finish of the sport, you would see England may rating at any time and we performed underneath stress for the final 5 minutes. My gamers did rather well and stored the end result.”