England captain Leah Williamson blames England’s poor defending on emotions
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England's Leah Williamson (foreground, left) and Alex Greenwood looking dejected after their 2-1 defeat by France on July 5.
PHOTO: REUTERS
ZURICH – England captain Leah Williamson blamed emotions for her team’s uncharacteristic performance in their 2-1 loss to France
Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore struck in the first half for France to leave England’s travelling fans in stunned silence at Stadion Letzigrund in Zurich. While Keira Walsh pulled one back in the 87th minute and the Lionesses had some near-misses towards the end, it was too little too late for the reigning champions.
“I’m disappointed there was some cheap sort of emotional defending in the first half, when you take waves of attack like that you leave yourself open to those sorts of things,” Williamson said of their poor one-on-one defending.
“I’m just frustrated because I think the football that we played near the end, and the game plan, could’ve worked. We just didn’t execute it exceptionally well.
“We spoke (at half-time) as players, we take responsibility individually and as a team. We have a calm environment at the minute but there was an injection of get the emotion out, leave it in the changing room, and go out and just be pragmatic about it and try and insert a bit of ‘umph’ into the game.”
The loss was manager Sarina Wiegman’s first in a European Championship after leading both the Netherlands (2017) and England (2022) to titles.
“Of course, we’re frustrated, we had three very good weeks and we trained really well but that’s never a guarantee that you’ll win the game,” the Dutchwoman said.
“And you also know that France is a proper team too, so you have to do things really well. We just didn’t get it right at those moments.”
The first goal of the night almost went to England but Alessia Russo’s strike was chalked off after the video assistant referee (VAR) ruled that Beth Mead had been offside in the build-up.
Wiegman also believed Russo was fouled in France’s second goal, but a VAR review said otherwise.
“I’m not the referee but I’m upset,” she said.
England have been slow off the mark in previous major tournaments, edging out Austria 1-0 to kick off Euro 2022 and Haiti 1-0 at the 2023 World Cup en route to their first final appearance.
“I can’t really compare all the first games in tournaments,” Wiegman said. “I think playing against France is just totally different than every other start of a tournament because I think they’re a world-class team, and I think we’re a very good team too.”
Meanwhile, France staked their claim to be contenders for the title with their inspired showing in Zurich.
Player of the Match Delphine Cascarino said: “I was expecting a good game from us. We worked a lot to prepare for this English team...
“We got a fright in the beginning but we remained calm and we managed to get to our objective. We stuck to the game plan, and I believe we really controlled the game.”
England now face a mammoth task on July 9 against the Netherlands, 3-0 winners over Wales in the other Group D game on July 5.
That earlier game saw Vivianne Miedema score her 100th international goal, with Victoria Pelova and Esmee Brugts also finding the net.
“It’s special. When you’re a child, you don’t even dream of this, or maybe you do dream, but achieving it is special,” Miedema told NOS Sport. REUTERS, AFP
