‘Poor’ England must ‘demand higher’ in Euros qualifying, says Alessia Russo

England must “demand higher” from each other, striker Alessia Russo has said after an underwhelming start to their Euro 2025 qualifying campaign.

Sarina Wiegman’s defending European champions took the lead at Wembley Stadium on Friday thanks to Russo’s header but were far from their flowing best, giving away possession too easily and looking vulnerable to Sweden’s counter-attacking threat.

They switched off in the second half, allowing Sweden back into the game when Fridolina Rolfo nodded in at the back post to make it 1-1

Drawn in a tough group with Sweden, France and the Republic of Ireland, who England face next in Dublin on Tuesday, this felt like a missed opportunity to capitalise in front of a home crowd.

Russo, who was one of England’s brightest players before being substituted in the second half, admitted to frustrations with the performance.

“Sweden are a top side, our group is tough. We’re a good side too so I think it’s disappointing but we’ve come up against a strong side,” she told ITV.

“Our standards are high, we know we can demand higher of each other. We will own that, but across the board, there were lower standards that we can improve on.

“We struggled to figure out the problems but we did get a draw. Every result and every point counts.”

It was a somewhat flat atmosphere at Wembley after a big build-up before kick-off with fans throwing paper aeroplanes in the second half, before getting out their phone camera lights as England’s performance dipped.

Sweden, ranked sixth in the world, know what the Lionesses are capable of having fallen to a heavy semi-final defeat at Euro 2022 on the way to Sarina Wiegman’s side lifting the trophy.

But as Wiegman said, this was a far more even encounter.

“This group is really tough. Of course I’m disappointed – because we always want to win,” she said.

“At the end of the game, if you watch it back, we were very close to scoring a goal. Overall this is a fairly balanced match. We held the ball more but we also saw how dangerous their counter-attacks were. I think the draw reflects the progress of the match. the remaining two teams progress to the play-offs.

And former England midfielder Karen Carney said the Lionesses need to improve their focus in the remaining matches, adding that Sweden is the The team played better in the second half. >

“If England had come on, Sweden’s goal wouldn’t have happened. Lucy Bronze wasn’t paying attention to the far post,” she added.

“Sweden are a good team more in the second half. Tuesday’s match against the Republic of Ireland was unacceptable. It’s the group of death and it’s really difficult.

“We are European champions and we need three points. It’s a big match and form needs to improve but we needed three points.”< br> >Former England international Ian Wright added: “England gave Sweden a boost. We played very poorly tonight, especially in the midfield where We were very careless. We were lucky not to lose this match.”