England 1-2 France: Elisa De Almeida and Marie-Antoinette Katoto strike to hurt Lionesses' hopes of qualifying for Euro 2025 from puzzle pieces cartoon images Watch Video

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✓ Published: 01-Jun-2024

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England used to relish playing in front of a home crowd under Sarina Wiegman, but it is starting to feel like that magic is wearing off.<br/><br/>Defeat against France, their first loss in a qualifying fixture for 22 years, leaves them with work to do if they want to retain their European crown in Switzerland next year.<br/><br/>Only the top two teams will progress automatically from what is a tough Euro 2025 qualifying group, with England now in third place.<br/><br/>They now have to travel to France, who they play again on Tuesday, before facing Ireland at home and Sweden away in July.<br/><br/>Perhaps what is most concerning for Wiegman is that her side has taken just one point from their two home fixtures.<br/><br/>The Lionesses lacked a spark and, in truth, many looked tired after a testing season. Elisa De Almeida’s superb volley, which brought France level after Beth Mead had opened the scoring, was undoubtedly the best moment of a game lacking quality.<br/><br/>‘The result is disappointing and I think unnecessary,’ Wiegman said.<br/><br/>‘I think our performance was good for most parts of the game. The first part of course was very different than [what] we were expecting, so we had to find our feet to get started. After that we did well, we scored a goal, I think we had chances of scoring more, and then they scored from a corner. That was disappointing.<br/><br/>‘Then in the second half, I think we controlled the match more than we did in the first half. But we didn't score, we created almost no chances, so it's that pass that will create the best chance, or the touch, or the cross, in many moments we played pretty well but it's very frustrating that we then conceded a goal from a corner [set-piece], we know they're very good at that, so we wanted to do that [defend set pieces] very well, and in some moments we did but in too many moments we didn't.’<br/><br/>For the first time since February 2023, Wiegman was able to select a centre-back pairing of Leah Williamson and Millie Bright, with both players having spent time out injured in the last year.<br/><br/>But the decision not to select Alex Greenwood, who has enjoyed a fine season with Manchester City, at either center-back or left-back was puzzling.<br/><br/>Greenwood was arguably England’s best player at the World Cup last summer and her composure on the ball and passing ability was missed.<br/><br/>Things got off to a bad start for England when Mary Earps was forced off after just five minutes.<br/><br/>The goalkeeper, who was making her 50th international appearance, appeared to twist her hip after a routine pass and despite efforts to continue, was replaced by Hannah Hampton.<br/><br/>After a cagey opening, Ella Toone could have put England ahead mid-way through the half when she connected with Lauren Hemp’s cross in the box, but her effort spun just wide.<br/><br/>Hemp continued to cause problems down the left wing and, on the half-hour mark, created the opener. The forward’s cross evaded Alessia Russo and Georgia Stanway, who was perhaps fouled by Selma Bacha as she tried to connect with the deliv