Players frustrated by defeat, says Williamson

Lionesses captain Leah Williamson described England’s 3-2 defeat to Belgium as a ‘really disappointing’ outcome after Sarina Wiegman’s side were beaten in Leuven.

The defender assessed the result, identifying key areas of improvement for England, who slipped to second in the UEFA Women’s Nations League rankings with seven points on the board, having beaten the Red Flames 5-0 at Ashton Gate on Friday night.

“We started too slow,” explained Williamson. “They were very quick. You expect that from the result from the other day but we need to figure it out a little bit quicker and we didn’t.

“We didn’t damage them enough with the ball like we did in the previous game.

Wiegman’s side conceded an early goal at the King Power at Den Dreef Stadion, with Belgium 3-0 up inside half an hour.

Williamson’s international and club team-mate Beth Mead pulled a goal back from the penalty spot but the 28 year old insisted England will be working on their weaknesses ahead of next month’s clash with Portugal before coming up against world champions Spain once again in June.

“Ultimately you always have to deal with the players and the runners better than we did today so we’ll watch it back and make sure because I don’t think that should be an area of weakness for us and we need to make sure we improve that,” continued Williamson. “But we just gave them to much space in the spaces that they wanted.

“It was more to do with them and us not jumping us as much as they did. But they came out a completely different side to the one that was in Bristol the other night and I don’t we adapted to it quick enough.”

Despite Michelle Agyemang making the scoresheet on her debut and getting the visitors right back in it, the Lionesses ran out of time to find an equaliser.

Williamson summed up the players’ emotions in the wake of the result but, with two games remaining in Group A3, there is still plenty to play for.

“There is a lot of frustration but there are two games to go,” said Williamson. “We just made it a lot harder than it would have been if we had picked up a win today but I think we should be winning this game that is why we are frustrated.”