England Women’s Head Coach, Sarina Wiegman has called for her Lionesses to “improve” after 2-1 friendly loss to Brazil.
First-half goals from Bia Zaneratto and Dudinha in the opening 18 minutes proved enough for Brazil to secure victory, even despite Georgia Stanway’s consolatory second-half penalty for England after Angelina’s 21st-minute red card for the visitors.
Wiegman however wasn’t surprised at Brazil’s high-intensity start but felt that England were poor when didn’t get the ball to forward, Alessia Russo
“They started how we expected them to start, and when we found Alessia we did well,” she said.
“But when we played it short, they hit us on the counter-attack and that harmed us twice. That’s exactly what we did not want to do, so that gave us troubles.
“But even before their red card we had opportunities, we got in behind twice. Then they got the red card and it was unlucky that we then hit the crossbar.”
Wiegman though took heart from how England dominated once they got the extra-woman advantage but iterated that their end product must be more polished in the execution.
“Then, I think we dominated the game but I think we need to improve in the final areas.
“We could do better in execution. We hit the crossbar another time and we didn’t give away much, which we’d hope to do because we have one more player on the pitch.
“The learning we take from this is to get in the final third, get in even more and improve on execution.”
Stanway Vows England Can Build on “disappointing” Defeat
Stanway echoed Wiegman’s feelings as she insisted that Brazil’s high-intensity made the game difficult for the hosts with their man-to-man marking.
“It was a really, really tough game. It’s difficult when a team goes player-to-player all over the pitch and it was difficult to find the space. There was a lot of movement and a lot of running.”
Stanway also felt that England are more comfortable facing fellow European teams so need to learn to become more adaptable against teams outside of Europe.
“We’re not used to playing against nations from a different continent, so it’s something we’ve got to adapt to.
“I think there are some really good things we can take away from there, obviously with the red card it helped us find the free player a little bit more.”
The 26-year-old midfielder also felt that the defending in the first 20 minutes was England’s downfall amidst wasteful finishing up top in the second half, but reflected that the game was a chance to celebrate their UEFA Women’s Euro title defence of July.
“But, yes, the opening 20 minutes were a bit disappointing from us.
“We had a lot of chances second half, on another day they go in. We’ll review this, build from it. We’ve got a lot of time.
“It’s not a setback, we’ve come here to a home crowd with a European trophy in our hands. Today was a day we came to celebrate with them.”
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