Just over eight months to go until Euro 2025, and defending champions England look no closer to fixing their defensive snags than they did at Wembley on Friday.
Pass straight to the opposition next summer as often as they have done over the course of these two games, and they will have no hope of retaining their European crown.
South Africa reached the round of 16 at last summer’s World Cup and are ranked inside Fifa’s top 50, but Sarina Wiegman would have expected a tidier, snappier display from her Lionesses as they hosted Banyana Banyana in a friendly at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
England were good value for their 2-1 win, a victory that came courtesy of first-half goals from captain Leah Williamson, on the occasion of her 50th appearance, and young Manchester United midfielder Grace Clinton.
To have won is not necessarily to have been left satisfied, though, and Wiegman will have observed through gritted teeth plenty of aspects of her team's performance — notably, a succession of careless passes to go with those committed in the 4-3 home defeat by Germany.
The roar of emotion from Williamson after her opening goal told of a thorny start to the season at Arsenal and her fault for at least one of Germany’s goals on Friday night.
But though that was a composed finish, Williamson was guilty of passing straight to South Africa on more than one occasion. The most costly came just after the break, allowing Christina Kgatlana to slide coolly past the recalled Mary Earps.
Alex Greenwood and Esme Morgan were also sloppy in possession, and it was little wonder South Africa’s confidence grew as the match wore on. Without Earps’ fine close-range parry from the dangerous Kgatlana, it could, before 80 minutes, have been 2-2.
Reflections for Wiegman and England will not be wholly negative, of course. Chloe Kelly started brightly and thundered against the crossbar shortly after the break, and late substitute Millie Bright was much more assured than when gifting Germany chance after chance on Friday.
And Maya Le Tissier, an ever-present for Manchester United in both of the last two WSL seasons, will also have been pleased with her own performance. The Lionesses need a long-term solution at right-back, where the incumbent, Lucy Bronze, this week turned 33. Le Tissier is 11 years younger, and her cross for Clinton’s headed goal was sumptuous.
Yet this 2-1 win with a much-changed lineup posed more questions than it produced answers about how the Lionesses are shaping up for Switzerland 2025. They have kept just two clean sheets from 10 internationals so far this year. It is something Wiegman will be painfully aware of; something she must remedy — and soon.
