After Alessia Russo’s goal was disallowed on VAR review, the defending champions conceded two goals in the space of three minutes in the first-half, making their route to three points all the more difficult.
Despite a late stirring of pressure that followed Keira Walsh’s 87th minute strike from range, England fell to defeat – the first-ever for Sarina Wiegman at a major tournament.
Starting left-back Carter, who was given the challenge of dealing with Delphine Cascarino, believes England were too concerned by their opponents heading into the match.
“We played like we looked scared today. We weren’t aggressive enough. We worried about their threats in behind and what they could do rather than doing what we could do,” she explained.
“We didn’t do as well on the ball or off the ball. I feel like the only positive to take is that last 10 minutes.
“For me, watching it from the side, I really believed that we would get a goal and I really felt that we could get a second goal.
“We have to focus on that 10 minutes that we did have at the end and take that into the next game.”
Thanks for your fantastic support in Zürich and back home ❤️
Now it’s time to recover and reset – we’ll see you all on Wednesday, #Lionesses fans 👊 pic.twitter.com/DTp01jXvjM
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) July 5, 2025
That final 10 minutes was inspired in part by the introduction of 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang in the 86th minute, and further spurred on by Walsh’s consolation goal a minute later.
The Chelsea midfielder collected the ball on the edge of the box from a corner before taking a touch and sublimely firing home for just her second England goal.
But it was Agyemang who brought intent as a fourth attacker in place of centre-back Alex Greenwood, providing the travelling supporters with a reason to cheer in a grandstand finish.
“She’s great. She’s an incredible talent and, even better, she’s an incredible person,” said Carter of the England youngster.
“Having someone like her to bring on, I think that we do have depth in our subs and the players that came on today really showed that and made a really big impact.
“I’m really happy that Michelle’s in the squad because she’s been a great asset for us.”
The damage, however, was already done and the scoreline arguably flattered England.
Sarina Wiegman’s side struggled to get back into the game after Russo’s goal had been ruled out for Beth Mead’s offside in the build-up, though the margin was a matter of millimetres.
What ensued was a series of misplaced passes, sloppy turnovers and squandered chances as the Lionesses struggled to regain a foothold in a game that France dominated.
“We all have days where we’re having a bit of a mare on the ball and, unfortunately, today there was more than one player doing that,” reflected Carter.
“We all made a lot of mistakes today that we wouldn’t normally make. As much as we need to go over it and make sure we do it better, there’s also a lot of mistakes in there that were just uncharacteristic of the players to be making.
“The only thing that we can do is review it and try our best to work on those things in training and do better for the next game.”
Doing better is now a must if England are to progress from the group stages. They have arguably the toughest billing of fixtures in the so-called ‘group of death’ as they face a Netherlands side on Wednesday buoyed by 3-0 victory over Wales.
For Carter, though, despite the loss the task remains the same as it always has: win.
“I don’t think [the aim] is any different than before the tournament started,” she said.
“We knew that we had to win games and we set out to win every single game and that doesn’t change now.
“We go to the Netherlands and we try to win the same way we would have, even if we’d have won tonight.”
