Lionesses make unwanted piece of history as they open Euro 2025 with comfortable defeat
England opened their Women’s Euros title defence with a lacklustre 2-1 defeat against France.
Two goals in the space of four first-half minutes proved to be the undoing of Sarina Wiegman’s side, who created an unwanted piece of history in the process.
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France were the deserved winners against the title-holdersCredit: Getty
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The pressure is on England ahead of their second group gameCredit: GettyThe Lionesses believed they took the lead through Alessia Russo but an offside check ruled out the goal and kept the match goalless.
France made the most of the decision and went ahead on 35 minutes as Marie-Antoinette Katoto netted with a tap-in from close-range.
Sandy Baltimore added their second only moments later with a fine finish into the top corner as England were left stunned.
VAR reviewed the goal for offside but it stood, and Wiegman was left fuming with the outcome.
READ MORE ON WOMEN’S EUROSThe 2022 champions fought back late on with a long-range hit from Keira Walsh, but couldn’t draw level by full time.
Defeat has made them the first title-holders to lose their opening match in the following tournament.
France were simply too good on the night and deserved the win that puts them second in Group D.
In fact, England were unable to get a single shot on target until the excellent strike from Walsh.
“We lost the game [with] cheap defending one v one,” Lionesses captain Leah Williamson said.
“We learnt from those mistakes in fairness but on the ball not good enough. We couldn’t keep it in the areas we needed to keep it.”
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England’s Euros defence has started with a poor defeatCredit: Getty
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Wiegman is now tasked with turning their fortunes aroundCredit: Getty”We got better and as they tired we took advantage of that but not enough in the end.”
The Netherlands currently lead the standings having beaten Wales 3-0 earlier in the day.
England face the Dutch next on Wednesday, live on talkSPORT, now in a bid to keep their Euro 2025 campaign alive.
Anything but a win will be needed to keep them within the chance of advancing to the knockout stages.
If the Lionesses did go all the way in Switzerland, they would become the first back-to-back champions since Germany in 2013.
The Germans’ last title was their stunning sixth in a row and a record eighth in total in the competition’s history.
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Katoto turned the ball in to a near enough open goal on 36 minutesCredit: Getty
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Before Baltimore thumped home the French’s secondCredit: Getty
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Walsh scored what only proved to be a consolation goal for the holdersCredit: AFPElsewhere at Euro 2025, Spain got themselves off to an excellent start as they thumped their rivals Portugal 5-0.
Hosts Switzerland were beaten 2-1 by Norway, whilst Germany won 2-0 against Poland.
