MK-born football star Leah Williamson features as England beaten in Euro 2025 opener

Milton Keynes-born football star Leah Williamson played the whole game as England were beaten by France in the first game of the Women’s Euros.

The England captain played the whole match in Switzerland as the Lionesses began the defence of the Euros trophy they won at Wembley in 2022.

Things would end up making for a difficult start for England, however, after a 2-1 defeat by France in the tournament opener in Zurich.

Two goals in three minutes proved decisive for France, with Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore giving the French a 2-0 lead.

England had seen a goal disallowed at 0-0, but struggled for much of the game after falling two goals behind to recover.

They were handed a lifeline when Keira Walsh struck in the final minutes of the regular 90, only for France to shut the door on England and limit them to chances late on.

That means defeat for England in their tournament opener, with the team becoming the first reigning European champions to lose the first game of a following tournament.

England will aim to get points on the board in their next match, when they play the Netherlands in the same Zurich stadium on Wednesday.

In a post-match interview with BBC Sport, Williamson admitted her frustration that the team couldn’t get a reward in their opener or take advantage of opportunities that had fallen their way during the match.

She said, “I feel quite emotional actually. I’m disappointed there were some cheap sort of emotional defending in the first half, when you take waves of attack like that you leave yourself open to those sorts of things. I’m just frustrated because I think the football that we played near the end, and the game plan, could’ve worked. We just didn’t execute it exceptionally well.

“I recognise that the middle of the game is when we did go a little bit flat and I think there were some decisions that if they’d of gone our way would’ve really changed the momentum of the game.

“It doesn’t look great from the table point of view but it was two heavyweights going up against each other and today we came up short. There’s still every chance. The goal doesn’t change.”