Lionesses star makes blunt ‘not good enough’ admission as Euros hopes left in jeopardy

England face an uphill struggle to reach the knockout stages of the Women’s Euros after suffering defeat to France in their opener and skipper Leah Williamson admits the Lionesses were not good enough

Leah Williamson admitted England were “not good enough” as they lost their Euros opener against France. The Lionesses weren’t able to recover after conceding twice in quick succession at the end of the first-half as Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore took advantage of some weak defending, and Keira Walsh’s late goal wasn’t enough to spark a dramatic comeback. “We lost the game [with] poor defending one v one,” captain Williamson said. “We learnt from those mistakes in fairness.

“Not good enough with the ball, we weren’t good enough. We got better and took advantage of that but not enough in the end.

“Sometimes it happens. The positive is I’ve not seen us like in terms of turning over the ball so much for a while now. Tomorrow, back on it and there were some really good stuff towards the end.”

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It might have been a different story if England hadn’t suffered from a marginal offside call at 0-0, with Beth Mead straying off in the build-up to a disallowed Alessia Russo goal.

There was even hope at the end, with manager Sarina Wiegman gambling by throwing on an extra forward and causing panic in the French defence, but the damage had been done much earlier.

Williamson’s centre-back partner Alex Greenwood saw the disallowed Russo goal as a turning point after a bright start for the holders. “Honestly I thought we started the game really well,” Greenwood said.

“The first 10-15 minutes I thought we put them on the back foot and then after the VAR goal we just lost our way a little bit which is disappointing. And when you concede two goals you’ve got an uphill battle. “I need to watch the game, I need to reflect on the game, it’s going to take a day to do that but of course right now I’m just disappointed with the result.”

England will take on the Netherlands in their second group game on Wednesday, knowing only a win will keep their fate in their hands. The Dutch began with a comfortable 3-0 win against Wales in Saturday’s earlier game, with Vivianne Miedema setting them on their way with a stunning opener.

Another defeat for England on Wednesday would see their Euros challenge end early, providing France avoid defeat against underdogs Wales on the same day. Wiegman knows full well that there’s no margin for error, and her team will now need to perform under extreme pressure.

“I think we can do better. We know France is really good but we caused our own problems. We could have scored in the first minute. We could have made it easier,” Wiegman said, referring to an early Lauren James effort which flew over the bar.

“We have to step up and tomorrow we will review and recover and straight on to the games against the Netherlands on Wednesday. We will have recovery and talk to each other and move on.”

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