England ended their first training camp of 2017 with a hard-fought 0-0 draw against Olympic silver medalists Sweden in San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain.
It means England go home having only conceded one goal against two of their main European Championship rivals but once again failed to find the net across 180 minutes against top opposition.
Undoubtedly the Lionesses’ performance against Pia Sundhage’s side was more promising, particularly given it was a very experimental lineup with several players who haven’t featured for England in a couple of years.
Captain for the night Jordan Nobbs said sher and her teammates will go away relatively pleased with their opening camp of the year.
“Overall I think we probably deserved to beat Sweden,” said Nobbs. “We were quite pleased with our overall performance, maybe we’re just not quite sharp enough yet to get those goals. But we’ve not played football for a few months and to play two 90 minutes and to get plenty of players on the pitch is the main thing — we obviously hope the goals will come eventually.”
Nobbs was back in a more familiar “free” role against Sweden and the quick interchangeable passing between her, Izzy Christiansen, Karen Carney, and Jill Scott got England into some good positions.
But once again big chances evaded the Lionesses and Nobbs accepts the squad knows what they need to work on before the Euros.
“We’ve taken little steps defensively and we’re starting to nail that but we know as a squad it’s the final third we need to improve on.
“The SheBelieves Cup is just another tournament for us to try and work on that, we try to listen to Mark [Sampson, head coach] as much as we can; at the moment we’re enjoying playing this system, it shows our strength that we can change our formation and still compete as we are.”
While the camp in La Manga provided a return from the cold for the likes of Gemma Bonner and Rachel Williams, injury to regular No.1 Karen Bardsley also heralded a big opportunity for Siobhan Chamberlain.
The Liverpool goalkeeper was the only player to play the full 180 minutes — saving a penalty against Sweden after a string of impressive saves against Norway last week.
“I’m very pleased overall,” said Chamberlain. “I haven’t played for England that much recently so to play two games in three days is great for me. I wanted to take that chance to go out and prove what I’ve been working on and who I am as a goalkeeper.”
Discussing the lack of goals at one end, Chamberlain believes the goals will come eventually but is particularly pleased with England’s defense.
“The goals will come, we didn’t test their goalkeeper as much as we should have done but we’re rusty at the moment. Players haven’t played for a long time but to keep that tempo, intensity, and work rate up is a real positive for us.
“The defenders will be a headache for Mark but it’s fantastic for England. We had a new defense out there tonight and everyone looked completely comfortable given it was some people’s first game for a while.”
Despite an impressive display, Chamberlain wasn’t giving anything away when asked about her penalty save to deny Manchester City’s Kosovare Asllani.
“I can’t give my penalty secrets away,” she laughed. “Izzy [Christiansen] was coughing so I don’t know if she was trying to hint something but I’d already decided which why I was going.”