England Held by Portugal Ahead 2023 Women’s World Cup

Sarina Wiegman has said that England are in a “good place” despite being held by Portugal in their final match on home soil before heading to Australia for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

The Lionesses were frustrated as they failed to find the net and twice hit the bar on their way to registering 23 attempts in front of a 26,267 crowd in Milton Keynes.

“We should have put it in the back of the net. We all know that,” said the England boss, who flies to Australia with her players on Wednesday.

“We created lots of chances, and of course we wanted to score that goal. Today it just wouldn’t go in.

“I think we are in a very good place. We did a lot of things, as individuals and as a team, both on and off the pitch.

“This was the first game after we’ve not seen each other for a long time.”

Wiegman’s side were not at their fluent best, though they had chances to seal victory in the second half.

Georgia Stanway hit the bar at the end of the first half, substitute Alessia Russo was denied by a goalline block from Ana Borges, while Lucy Bronze’s header also hit the bar.

England take on Canada in a friendly behind closed doors on 14 July, eight days before their opening match of the World Cup on 22 July,

Wiegman used 17 players and tried several systems throughout the game at Stadium MK in an attempt to fine-tune plans.

But the Lionesses, whose 30-game unbeaten run ended with defeat by Australiain their previous match, struggled to click for large periods against Portugal and looked frustrated.