Georgia Stanway has admitted the Lionesses have a “long process” ahead of them to ensure they are ready to defend their crown at next summer’s Euros.
England were beaten by Germany at Wembley Stadium on Friday night in a repeat of the final from Euro 2022.
The Lionesses were 3-0 down inside half an hour during a chaotic game, shipping three first-half goals for the first time in a decade.
Stanway scored twice to haul England back into the game at 3-2, but they were eventually beaten 4-3 and conceded four goals for the first time under Sarina Wiegman.
“I don’t think it's about us not being at it, Germany are good,” Stanway told ITV. “We can’t say they aren’t a world-class team.
“We’ve got things to work on and we’ve got another opportunity on Tuesday [against South Africa] to make some improvements. We’ve got a long process to be right for the Euros next year.”
England were rocked early on, conceding a penalty after just two minutes. Germany struck twice more after that and the Lionesses were only able to get back into the game thanks to Stanway’s swift brace.
The midfielder was a rare bright spark on a chaotic evening, that will leave Wiegman will lots of food for thought ahead of next summer’s Euros in Switzerland.
“I’m disappointed after they scored that early, it’s not like us,” Stanway added. “It’s good we got back into the game. The penalty was a little unfortunate but it’s one we need to learn from.
“We just needed to adjust our shape and we couldn’t jump out in areas. As soon as we changed our shape, we got more compact and got on the ball.
“The first-half result was more generous. I wouldn’t say we were the weaker team.”
