England 2 Denmark 0
Dry pitch, hard training sessions – and camping. In the range of reasons for an under-par performance the latter was an unusual one but then England have adopted unusual methods in their preparations for the forthcoming World Cup.
Head coach Phil Neville gained another victory in the penultimate warm-up game before France, but admitted the unconvincing display was a “jolt” to a squad with aspirations of winning the tournament in France.
But then Neville had taken his players on a team-building exercise last week, spending a day and night with the Royal Marines at St George’s Park, and said after this sluggish encounter: “We trained them hard and had the bonding day where they only got one or two hours’ sleep. So I expected a little bit of fatigue.”
He got it. England were far from their best and also far from their strongest, it could be argued, without Lucy Bronze and Toni Duggan, who played in last weekend’s Champions League final, and with captain Steph Houghton among those rested.
In their absence, Nikita Parris, who will join Bronze at European champions Lyon next season, seized the opportunity. The 25-year-old forward claimed the opening goal to cap a remarkable few days in which she was also named the women’s footballer of the year and secured her dream move.
“The kid’s had such a big 10 days in her life,” Neville said. “You’re talking about a girl from Toxteth who is now going to France and moving away from home. We have to make sure we manage her well. The World Cup is the biggest thing in her life. She’s dreamed about it all her life and wants to make a big impact. She’s the type of girl who can go there and become a world star.”
No pressure then. However, Neville admitted his players felt the pressure, the looming expectation of the World Cup, what that entails, the growing interest and believed they were factors as well as the unwatered pitch, tiredness – and that night under canvas.
In truth, pre-tournament warm-up games are hard to gauge, as Neville knows from his own playing days, and his most telling comment probably came when he admitted that he used this as something of a “training exercise” and had even urged the referee to blow the final whistle instead of allotting four minutes of injury time.
The biggest lesson was in coming up against a world-class player such as Denmark’s Pernille Harder and, largely, England coped well with the dangerous forward who finished second behind Lyon’s Ada Hegerberg in the inaugural Ballon D’Or vote but will not be at the World Cup because her nation failed to qualify.
Still, Denmark are 17th in the Fifa rankings and should have gone ahead before England scored when Signe Bruun used her shoulder to control an awkward cross before finishing from close-range past goalkeeper Karen Bardsley. To her anger it was ruled out by for handball.
Soon after, England capitalised. On half-time a free-kick was won, after stand-in captain Jill Scott was pulled back, and Beth Mead swung it in with the headed clearance dropping to Parris who controlled it with her thigh and shot low inside the post.
Before that, Ellen White had shot wide, when through on goal, Scott had lifted the ball over from close-range and Parris had guided another effort just past the post. But it was far from convincing. Indeed Denmark dominated early in the second half until England scored a superb breakaway goal, started and finished by Scott.
The midfielder headed the ball to Georgia Stanway who ran from deep before finding Mead out wide. The cross was teed up and Scott arrived to head powerfully into the net.
England now have three days off before facing New Zealand next Saturday and then heading to France. “They need that,” Neville said of the break. They also probably needed this wake-up call – but also some sleep.
England (4-1-4-1): Bardsley; Daly, Williams, Bright, Stokes; Moore; Parris (Carney 61), Scott, Stanway (Kirby 61), Mead (Staniforth 80); White.
Subs: Bronze, Greenwood, Walsh, Houghton, Taylor, McManus, Earps.
Denmark (4-4-1-1): Abel; Sevecke, Ballisager, Arnth, Svava; Sorensen (Thogersen 75), Troelsgaard (Tavlo 75), Junge, Snerle (Gejl 41); Harder; Bruun (Madsen 64).
Subs: Christiansen, Holmgaard, Larsen, Karlsen, Hashemi.
Referee: Desire Grundbacher (Switzerland).