Defending champions England in deep early trouble after getting runaround from France at Euro 2025

It has felt naggingly possible throughout an awkward build-up that this Euros could all too easily go dramatically and rapidly belly up for England.

Simply put, everything is in place for the kind of classic champions crash-and-burn that has become a curious feature of recent men’s World Cups, where three defending champions on a row tumbled out at the group stage before France put a stop to that nonsense with a run to the final in Qatar.

This England team is just one that looked enormously vulnerable to a similar fate. Injury clouds over key players. Pre-tournament retirements hinting at a creeping disharmony. A teak-tough draw.

And now, after a crushingly disappointing performance in defeat to France, absolutely no margin for error.

There was never going to be any question of either side being able to ease their way into the tournament here, but the scale of France’s dominance outside a frenetic first 15 minutes and slightly panicked final 10 will be of grave concern to England.

Sarina Wiegman’s side did start brightly. On another night they could have been ahead even before the game’s first major turning point. Lauren James should probably have done better than to blaze over from a promising position in the very first minute, and somebody should definitely have done better when James fizzed a menacing cross through the centre of the French penalty area.

England then thought they’d scored from a clever Alessia Russo flicked finish from a parried shot. The goal was ruled out by perhaps the wokest VAR offside we’ve seen yet – in either the men’s game or women’s – even if Russo herself did appear more compellingly offside later in the build-up when certainly attempting to (if not necessarily succeeding in) playing the ball.

Either way, the let-off took the wind from England’s sails and invigorated France. At first slowly and surely but then quickly and decisively, they seized the game in the grip.

France began to dominate England physically and technically. At times, it was close to a bullying.

Wiegman has done more than enough to earn the benefit of the doubt when it comes to major tournament selection – tonight marked the end of a literally flawless record at the Euros – but there was more than a hint here of the classic temptation that can play on any international manager: picking your best players rather than your best team.

With a front four of pure attacking intent, England were left asking a vast amount of Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh in the middle of the park. It soon became apparent it was too much, with France’s midfield three taking full control of the game.

With England’s midfield duo outnumbered and outgunned, the Lionesses became horribly exposed out wide. Jess Carter in particular endured a night to forget, given the runaround by Delphine Cascarino before being replaced in the second half.

But things weren’t much better for the far more experienced yet equally isolated and exposed Lucy Bronze on the other side.

France’s first goal, which had started to feel inevitable both in how and when it would arrive, duly did so as Cascarino again danced down the right flank before giving Marie-Antoinette Katoto the simplest of tap-ins with England’s defence pulled wildly out of shape.

The second came soon after down the other flank. Bronze was, fittingly, third on the scene after being trapped upfield as Sandy Baltimore got away from the desperate attempt at cover from Leah Williamson before Bronze finally got there only to inadvertently tee Baltimore up to thump a finish beyond Hannah Hampton.

Wiegman tried to stem the bleeding in the second half, but France’s control was by now total as England appeared to be reduced to avoiding an even more punishing and bruising defeat.

Instead, a brilliant finish from an unlikely source in Walsh, scoring just the second goal of a storied England career, set up eight or so minutes of chaos and nonsense.

We’ve all seen it, where a team in serene control is suddenly gripped by panic while one resigned to their fate has renewed hope on the back of one swing of a right boot. But this was an extreme example of one of football’s classic tropes.

England had so many chances in those closing minutes they could so easily have emerged with a point. But it would have been a wildly undeserved one on the back of a chastening evening where they carried neither the appearance nor apparently the belief of champions.

With the Netherlands up next on Thursday evening, the time has become uncomfortably crunchy uncomfortably quickly.

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