Phil Neville has been making all the right decisions but it is important he brings Millie Bright back to face Japan
Thanks to a brilliant performance from Vanina Correa in the Argentina goal England’s task on Friday turned out to be more difficult than they might have expected when the draw was made, and I think they should be very pleased that it was. It was the perfect time to have quite a difficult game, and England will be a stronger team in this World Cup for having faced it and prevailed.
There have been more impressive scorelines: USA beat Thailand 13-0, Italy beat Jamaica 5-0 and France put four past South Korea. Those results are great and definitely build confidence but the danger is that they can lull you into a false sense of security, especially in a tournament where you will inevitably face tougher opposition later on. England are already battle-hardened; they’ve faced a difficult opponent, come up against a goalkeeper putting in a player-of-the-match performance, and they passed the test really well.
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