‘Cheap’ defending cost England in Euro 2025 opener, admits Leah Williamson

• Captain says England were not good enough on the ball

• Jess Carter: ‘We were a bit scared, not aggressive enough’

Leah Williamson admitted England were not good enough on the ball and said “cheap, one-versus-one defending” cost the Lionesses badly in their 2-1 defeat against France, but vowed her side would improve before facing the Netherlands on Wednesday.

The defending European champions looked second-best to France for large portions of their meeting in Zurich and the Lionesses captain said: “When you’re losing the ball really cheaply, and then you’re in emergency defending, and when you’ve done four or five counterattacks in a row against quality like that, it is tough, but we hold ourselves to higher standards, in the individual battles.

“The positive is that I’ve not seen us like that, in terms of turning over the ball so much, for a while now, so yes [while it is] really frustrating, I think that’s how we’ll take today. Tomorrow, back on it.” Continue reading...