We can do better, says Wiegman

England women’s senior team head coach Sarina Wiegman assessed tonight’s performance as the Lionesses slipped to a 2-1 defeat to France in their UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 opener.

The Lionesses’ defence of their European crown began in Zurich this evening but the England boss admitted she was dissatisfied with the end outcome.

“I am very disappointed about the result,” expressed Wiegman.

“I felt we started really well, scored a goal unfortunately it didn't count. Then we played ourselves a bit out of the game by playing short passes which really helped them.

“We had to get out of that first press and skip [it], that harmed us a bit. Then, of course, they scored goals and at the end we played with four attackers and really tried to get the goal over the line but we didn't.”

Despite being 2-0 down at the break, Wiegman explained that she was pleased with how her side began the game, with Alessia Russo firing England into the lead before seeing her effort struck off for an offside call.

“We started really well and then we started playing short passes – that's what they wanted because they wanted to press,” continued Wiegman.

“We needed to get in behind them and try to skip players. When we were out of that press we were sloppy. We know they are really strong on the counter-attack, they have really powerful and fast players.”

With a crucial game against the Netherlands – who two-time European champion Wiegman won the EUROs with back in 2017 – in Group D coming up on Wednesday 9 July (5pm BST kick-off), the Lionesses will regroup.

“We can do better,” said Wiegman. “We know France are really good but we caused our own problems. We could have scored in the first minute, they could have scored too. I think we can do better definitely and we have to make it a bit easier for ourselves.”

And the England boss urged her players to rectify those mistakes when they return to Stadion Letzigrund next week.

“We have to step up,” explained Wiegman. “Tomorrow, we review and recover and then it's straight onto the game against the Netherlands on Wednesday.

“Sometimes you lose games, that's part of sport but it's important we stick together and do the recovery well, talk to each other.”