If England defend this badly at Euro 2025 they will be coming home early

Do not let the fightback fool you, or the three goals England scored blinker you from the truth. England defended so badly against Germany, made so many mistakes, it is tempting to write off their chances of retaining their European crown next summer.

For half an hour, England were a disaster. An accident waiting to happen in defence, too easy to pass through in midfield and thriftless in attack. Even when they got back into the game as an offensive threat, they remained a liability at the back. It was the most embarrassing, shambolic performance of the Sarina Wiegman era.

We might still be nine months away from the start of the European Championship, but it was so poor, so chaotic and such a mess, it is a huge concern.

No team that makes as many basic, unforced errors as this one has a chance of progressing to the latter stages of a major tournament, let alone winning one. No team that defends as horrifically as the Lionesses did deserve to be considered one of Europe’s strongest.

It was difficult to watch and made you want to look away in disgust.

Wiegman’s face said it all. The Dutch woman is normally so stoic on the touchline, so undemonstrative. You would have to pay a lot more than a penny for her thoughts. On this occasion, they were free for everyone to see.

She had a face like thunder. Her temper had not just boiled, it had exploded. A scowl permanently on her brow, even when England staged their fightback, pulling two goals back through Georgia Stanway, Wiegman continued to pace and prowl along the touchline.

She screamed at her players, gesticulating wildly too as England’s kamikaze defending darkened her mood. The constant fear of another calamity unfolding put Wiegman – and the rest of us – in a perpetual state of unease.

If you were being kind, you would praise the Lionesses for the way they fought their way back, scoring three goals.  starting with a soft handball penalty conceded by Giulia Gwinn, but kindness is not going to help England.

This was a defensive performance that needed some harsh home truths, because if they play like this in a tournament, the repercussions will be severe.

Even when England looked like scoring, they always looked in just as much danger of conceding. Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton made some excellent saves to prevent Germany scoring a fourth before dropping a simple cross with just over a quarter of an hour remaining that led to a second penalty converted by Sara Dabritz.

Lionesses’ hapless half hour

4 min: England 0 Germany 1

Leah Williamson has not been playing well for Arsenal and England’s captain brought that poor form with her on international duty. From the moment she received the ball at her feet, she did not look comfortable.

The first touch was heavy. The second had to regain control and the third was a hopelessly wayward and under-hit pass back across goal. It was meant for Millie Bright, it went straight to Giovanna Hoffmann, who played in Linda Dallmann while Williamson waved an arm in the air in the hope an offside flag would save her embarrassment. Bright could only bring the forward down – possibly fortunate to escape with only a yellow card – and Giulia Gwinn’s penalty beat Hannah Hampton easily.

11 min: England 0 Germany 2

Jess Carter has played a lot at centre-back during her career but this was not the time to do so. The 26-year-old was supposed to be playing left-back, but abandoned her post, leaving a huge space for Gwinn to run into from the halfway line, with nobody in a white shirt anywhere near her. Carter had wandered so far she may as well have been playing as the right-sided centre-back. Her lack of positional awareness cost England a second goal when Gwinn hit a low drive into the bottom corner.

29 min: England 0 Germany 3

Lucy Bronze has been one of England’s all-time greats but, at the age of 32, her pace is dropping and she was comfortably beaten to a cross-field pass behind her by Klara Buhl. Bronze had scrambled back into position to put her body between herself and the goal, but she was not tight enough and the German forward shifted the ball to the right with one touch and then swept a shot through the England defender’s leg. Hampton still should have done better as the ball was close to her, but had been wrong-footed by the speed of the strike and could only help into the net. It is not a moment either England player will want to see again.