Earlier today (10:30am) England faced Haiti in their first match of the 2023 Women's world cup Group D.
The lionesses won 1-0 . But, questions are already being raised of how far the team can go.
England, ranked number 4 in the world by FIFA, where only able to scrape by a win coming from a re-taken penalty over the world 53rd ranked side.
LINE-UPS England
Formation : 4-3-3
Earps
Bronze Bright Carter Greenwood
Stanway Walsh Toone
Kelly Russo Hemp
Haiti
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Theus
Petit-Frère Limage Joseph Luis
Jeudy Pierre-Louis
Louis Dumornay Modesir
Borgella
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The starting attacking threats of the game came from Haiti, after Captain Millie Bright (who had returned from injury at club side Chelsea - she had not played in England's pre-world cup friendly's and BCD match v Canada) let away a loose ball.
Although the lionesses where able to recover the loose ball, it felt as though it set the tone for the match.
The Lionesses where caught out by the Haitians attacking forwards-front. And, although for the majority of the match Haiti did sit back which allowed for us to have 75% of the possession- they where not afraid to go forward, putting 7 shot's against England.
Mary Earps proved just why she is worth her FIFA B.E.S.T award , saving two impressive shots on target from Haiti.
I think what the match will have taught the squad is that in this World Cup, they will not just be able to sit back or rely on scoring a few goals.
Equally though, I believe in it's current set up and style needs to be changed for the team to progress further ,or at least make it easier to.
Although, we do have to accept the notable injury's that we have. The squad has not been able to work together for as long as they would have liked in preparation for the tournament.
England's next group match is against Denmark . 9:30 am kick off. Live on BBC.
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