Leah Williamson reveals how Australia loss can benefit England before World Cup
Leah Williamson says England's 2-0 loss to Australia can motivate the team ahead of the World Cup this summer.
The defeat on Tuesday night ended the Lionesses' 30-game unbeaten streak and handed head coach Sarina Wiegman her first defeat since she took charge of the team in September 2021.
"We want to learn, we have wanted to learn this whole time, we have wanted to be pushed to our limit and we need to take it up a new level,” Williamson said.
“In the past, we have won these games, we’ve turned them around, but actually, tonight, to lose it gives you a bit of fire.
“To be honest, sometimes you have to take blessings in disguise, and I think maybe that is not the worst thing that could happen to us. I think we looked like we were lacking ideas a bit on the ball. Definitely it could have been better and we got punished.
"It was my mistake for the first goal, and they were ruthless on the counter.
"Sometimes in football you have those games. We weren't as efficient as we usually are, we need to figure out why."
Chelsea's Sam Kerr was involved in both of Australia's goals, taking advantage of a mistake made by Williamson to score the opener.
Later, she put in a cross for Charlotte Grant, whose header bounced off Williamson for the second.
When asked whether it was her toughest match in an England shirt, Williamson said: "Yeah. I'm not one for dwelling on personal things, it's part of the game. I choose to be a professional footballer, to put myself in the position where I need to not do those things."
"It doesn't feel great. A big learning game against a very physical and well-organised Australian side," said Wiegman.
"We had a lot of possession and created some things but struggled to speed up the game and stretch them. We made some mistakes.
"Sometimes we lost it too quickly and it looks like it's not energetic enough but we bring it back to football.
Read the latest England Women news here
feed
"I'm not worried. I don't worry very quickly," Wiegman added. "We know we have to be at the top level when we go into the World Cup.
"Every game we get warnings. We did against Brazil. We know where we want to go to and what we have to do. I don't think we're losing momentum. I think it's building and this is just a very good learning for us to get to the high level to win these games."
The team will begin their World Cup campaign against Haiti on July 22, followed by matches against Denmark and China. Their last-16 opponent will come from Group B, which contains Australia.