Sarina Wiegman has described England's hard-fought victory over Italy as a "good lesson" for her side ahead of this summer's World Cup.
Rachel Daly put the Lionesses ahead after half an hour, nodding home after a sumptuous delivery from Katie Robinson. Jordan Nobbs nearly doubled England's advantage after the break before Sofia Cantore restored parity for Italy with a near-post header on the hour mark.
Wiegman's side battled to get themselves back in front; the breakthrough once again came through Daly who rose to meet Lauren James' inch-perfect cross inside 71 minutes for the Aston Villa star to score her second in the game. And the England boss was delighted with the character her side showed to get themselves back in front.
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"I think it's a good (lesson)," she said. "They equalised when we had controlled the game but in that moment lost a little bit of control.
"To learn was really good but of course, you don't want to concede and that's part of the game."
The Lionesses boss made nine changes to the side that triumphed over Korea Republic last time out, with first senior starts handed out to attacking duo Jess Park and Katie Robinson.
Reflecting on the performances of her young players, Wiegman said: "They’re doing well and how we started today was pretty impressive. You come here and all these fans are waiting for us excited and then we come into the stadium with about 30,000 people but we just started to play which is what we want to do.
"Of course it is really normal to have anxiety but they started the game and played the game with lots of courage and just played football. I’m impressed and happy for them and happy for the team."
The England boss added: "I think the players are competing with each other because of course everybody wants to go to the world cup and every moment they get to show themselves they want to do that but we’re also really playing as a team."
The win over Italy puts England in pole position to retain the Arnold Clark Cup after triumphing in the inaugural edition of the tournament last year, with Wiegman’s side set to travel to Ashton Gate on Wednesday to take on Belgium in their final game of the competition.
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