Ella Toone confident of England response after Euro opener defeat | OneFootball

England forward Ella Toone believes the Lionesses are better than their defeat to France suggested as they started Euro 2025 with a loss.

England were sucker-punched by two quick fire goals in the first half by Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore as they kicked off their European Championships title defence with a 2-1 defeat.

Keira Walsh’s late strike gave Sarina Wiegman’s hope late on but it was not enough. Toone, who started the match as a substitute before entering the pitch in the second half, is adamant her side’s late match showing suggests England are still a strong side, but has warned of not starting their next Euros matches in similar fashion to how they did against France.

“We need to look at ourselves for the goals we conceded, we know we’re better than that,” Toone said. “On the ball we could probably be tighter. I think we showed the desire towards the end of the game, when we put some passes together we created some chances and had France hanging on at the end.

“That shows the depth we have in the squad, people can come on and make an impact. We just need to start the game a little stronger, but we stick together, it’s football, you win and lose.

“We’ll go into the next game even more prepared than the last.”

The Manchester United forward is also confident of her side’s chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals, whilst acknowledging the shortcomings they suffered at the hands of the French.

“Mentally we’re strong anyway. We know what it takes to win tournaments and get to finals in tournaments. We know how to play the game, we knew we had to win two of these group games to get out so nothing changes.

“Obviously you want to win all three. But France were good tonight, very good individuals and we conceded goals by our standards aren’t good enough.

“But we have the mentality to go again, we’ll recover the best we can and make sure we analyse the game, take the pros, take the cons and work harder next time.”