defeated 2–1 in Lyon to hand her first ever loss at a European Championship. The England manager had previously overseen 12 consecutive wins at the tournament across spells with the Netherlands and England, lifting the trophy on both occasions.
and scored for France, while got one late goal back for England.
England were a bit unlucky on the night, as the game could have turned out differently had goal not been disallowed by VAR for a offside. At some point, IFAB will have to introduce the Arsène Wenger-suggested change of rule, as VAR and the A-VAR have definitely changed the way things are checked.
At that point, England were on top and dominating proceedings. They had created multiple chances and was running the game. The disallowed goal seemed to have a positive effect on France, who woke up and started pressing more, with greater intensity and success.
France scored two goals in three minutes, both coming from England turnovers and fast transitions. First on the right wing, fed , who ran past with ease and sent a low cross for an easy tap-in. 1–0 to les Bleues.
Three minutes later, France won the ball back and sent it to the left wing to , who managed to evade and with a little bit of luck and ended up smashing a right-footed shot into the top corner. 2–0 after 39 minutes and it was a mountain to climb for England.
England struggled to create many chances, as creativity was left in the hands of and later . But it was not enough. Interestingly, mentioned England were sloppy in their passing and played into France’s hands by trying too much short passing and less direct football.
On the France side, the three forwards, , , and , were excellent, with the two wingers giving a hard time to and . The midfield battle was intense, with playing in the six role to add physicality alongside the more creative and . England’s midfield three was , , and , who was superb on the ball and dictated play in the first half.
On the Arsenal side, was good and scored a goal that was unlucky to be ruled out. She had a busy night fighting at the front of the attack.
, like the whole defence, had her hands full and did not produce any of her usual long, accurate passes. England’s build-up play was generally poor.
caused problems early in the game for the French defence, operating in the half-space and leaving the wing to , interchanging with . She was ultimately offside and inadvertently denied the goal.
and came on as substitutes and tried, with some success, to turn things around once England pulled a goal back. was effective on the wing and took set-pieces, while came on with four minutes to go. Her introduction may offer some ideas, as she was deployed alongside in a 4-4-2 system.
This kind of late introduction could be useful next season, pairing Agyemang with Blackstenius to have two pacy forwards attacking from all areas of the pitch.
England now have to beat the Netherlands if they want to stay in the tournament, as a draw would leave them relying on France on the final matchday. The Dutch are full of confidence after beating Wales 3–0, with goals from Viv Miedema, her 100th for the Netherlands, Vicky Pelova, and Esme Brugts.
Letting the Netherlands have most of the possession and going direct will likely be the game plan and suits England’s strengths. We saw on Saturday that a possession-heavy style is not natural for England in the way it is for France or Spain.
As Lucy Bronze mentioned post-game, England also lost to France in the 2015 World Cup opener in Canada and still reached the semi-finals, ultimately taking home the bronze medal. So anything can still happen in this Euros.
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