Jess Carter praises impact of substitutes after England’s Euro opener defeat | OneFootball

England defender Jess Carter has praised the impact of the Lionesses substitutes despite defeat to France in their Euro 2025 opener.

Sarina Wiegman’s side’s European Championships title defence got off to the worse possible start after first half goals from Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore saw the French come away as 2-1 victors despite Kiera Walsh’s late consolation goal.

Carter, who started the match at left-back, was one of many to struggle against the pace of the French attack, and believes the Lionesses did not play as cohesively as hoped.

“As a collective, we just weren’t as together as we’d like to have been,” Carter said. “We didn’t deliver our game plan that we wanted to.

“We knew France were a top team so we knew we had to be at our best and even more to beat them and I think we played a little bit scared today, in an out of possession.

“I think we were worried about their threats were rather than trying to deliver ours. We’ve got a lot to improve on in the next game in order to beat the Netherlands, but all we can do is review the game tomorrow, rest and recover, and get ready to go again.”

England performed better after the hour mark following the introduction of the likes of Chloe Kelly and Ella Toone, with the European Champions looking far the better side.

Carter has called on her side to build on their strong end to the match.

“They were incredible. When I came off, I had full belief we would get another goal. The subs that came on were excellent and the energy they brought, they made me believe we were going to score again.

“That’s the positives to take away from this, the way we finished the game. We could’ve gone 2-0 down or 3/4-0 down but we didn’t, and stayed in the game against a top team which was really important.

“We need to build on that final ten minutes, it’s frustrating we waited 80 minutes for that but we can build on it in the next game.”