Ella Toone has backed England’s big tournament mentality to dig them out of a Euro 2025 qualification hole.
The Lionesses slipped to third place in Group A3 as a result of Friday night’s 2-1 defeat by France at St James’ Park and Sweden’s victory in the Republic of Ireland, with their hopes of clinching an automatic spot severely damaged.
However, the defending champions will head for the reverse fixture in Saint-Etienne on Tuesday evening confident they can get themselves back on track in tough away fixtures against the French and the Swedes either side of a home clash with Ireland.
Midfielder Toone said: “As England, we want to win every game that we step into. We know that we’ve got a great team, a great manager and we want to go to the Euros, obviously.
“We won the last one, we want to go there and do the same thing, so right now it hurts a little bit. But we’ve got a few more days until we go again, which is nice because you can always rectify what we didn’t do tonight.
“We’ve got to make sure that we recover well, learn from the game, but also take a lot of the positives that we have as well.”
Sarina Wiegman’s side have collected just four points from their first three games and at the halfway stage, are five adrift of leaders France and level with Sweden, who have a marginally better goal difference.
We knew this group was really tough, so we can't dwell on these results.— Ella Toone
However, while that is significantly less than they might have expected, there is no sense of panic within the camp.
Asked if it was important to stay calm, Toone said: “Yes, it’s really important, but we’ve got a squad full of experience and we know what it’s like. We knew this group was really tough, so we can’t dwell on these results, this result tonight, we can’t dwell on it.
“We’ve got to go again in a few days, so as a team, we’ve got to make sure that we switch our mindset, we recover really well and we learn from the game.”
England, rated second in the world by FIFA, took a first-half lead through Beth Mead, but were pegged back by Elisa De Almeida’s sweet volley before Marie-Antoinette Katoto won it for third-ranked France with both goals stemming from corners.
Toone said: “It felt like we played really well, it was just a lapse of concentration on two set-pieces that we knew they were good at.
“We know they’ve got some big players who are really good in the air and we knew that we had to make sure that we were concentrated, and it’s really disappointing to concede two goals like that, so it’s not the best feeling right now. But I know that we can learn a lot from it.”
England’s disappointment was compounded by the early loss of keeper Mary Earps, who left the stadium on crutches after suffering a hip injury which is still being assessed and which seems likely to keep her out of the return game.
