England become first reigning champion to lose a Women's Euro opener

England set a number of unwanted firsts as they began the defense of their Women's European Championship title by losing to France 2-1 on Saturday.

Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Sandy Baltimore scored two quickfire goals towards the end of the first half as France recorded a ninth straight win and stunned the reigning champions.

Keira Walsh reduced the deficit three minutes from time but it wasn't enough to prevent England from becoming the first titleholder to lose the opening game at a women's Euros.

"The positive is that I've not seen us like that ... for a while," England captain Leah Williamson said after the match. "We hold ourselves to higher standards in individual battles and we improved on that throughout the game, which is good."

The defeat also ended England manager Sarina Wiegman's remarkable flawless record in the competition, after winning 12 out of 12 games across two tournaments as she steered first the Netherlands to the title and then England.

"We're frustrated because we had such three very good weeks and we trained really well, but that's never a guarantee that of course you win the game," Wiegman said. "You have to do things really well and we just didn't get it right at those moments."

The Lionesses will next face the Netherlands on Wednesday, before taking on Wales in their final group game four days later.

The Netherlands beat Wales 3-0 in the early game in Group D.

It was a statement victory for France, who – despite being without injured captain Griedge Mbock – were in firm control for most of the game, apart from the opening 15 minutes and a tense finale after Walsh's goal.

However, France's coach Laurent Bonadei was quick to dismiss any suggestion his team was emerging as one of the favorites

"I won't change my position on our status. At the moment we haven't won anything, we are still challengers with a lot of ambition," he said. "We showed a lot of courage tonight and the ability to compete with a very good team. But we just won one match, there are still two left in this group."