Sarina Wiegman admitted she is no closer to knowing her starting lineup for the World Cup after England’s drab 0-0 draw with Portugal in Milton Keynes.
The Lionesses were frustrated by their visitors at Stadium MK, and unable to win their final official warm-up match before the tournament in Australia and New Zealand, in front of a 26,000-strong crowd.
European champions England’s opening Women’s World Cup match is against Haiti on July 22, and also in their group are Denmark and China.
After the stalemate, Wiegman said of Portugal’s defensive astuteness: “I’m not surprised. We have seen them a couple of times. We just could have scored a little more.”
“My first thoughts are that I am very disappointed that we didn’t win this game”, she added. “But we also take a lot of learnings from it. I think the first half we were a little bit too slow. We could have done the final pass a little better. Despite all those things, I think we still created so many chances that we could have scored.
“I think they [Portugal] didn’t drop as deep as some countries might have. If you see how many chances we created — I think we had 23 shots on goal — there won’t be many matches where you don’t score.”
Rachel Daly and Alessia Russo are fighting to make the centre-forward position their own, but despite being given 45 minutes each, neither was able to capilise as they both squandered a host of chances.
Wiegman said: “At the Euros, Ellen [White] and Alessia were kind of a team. Ellen would start and Alessia would finish. You first want to create lots of chances and then see how you execute that. Yes, it’s disappointing, they want to be ruthless. Today they didn’t score — it’s not a worry for me.
“When you get so much into those positions today, I think that’s pretty good. But of course we want the final touch to get the ball in the net. We all know that.”
“I am not closer now”, she added, when asked whether the game helped to confirm in her mind who might start against Haiti. “This is not the time to make the final decision.”
Wiegman was quizzed on whether England head into the World Cup in a worse state, both in terms of form and player availability, than they did the Euros.
“I don’t relate that to each other”, she insisted. “I think the team has changed because there’s new individuals so it’s a new situation.”
