Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman pointed to changes by Portugal when asked why England faded in the second half of their 1-1 draw on Friday night.
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England led 1-0 thanks to Russo on Friday nightBut only left Portugal with a point in 1-1 drawLionesses boss Wiegman explains poor resultFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
England led after just 15 minutes in their Nations League opener thanks to a great cross from Lucy Bronze which was converted well by Alessia Russo. The Lionesses dominated the first half in the Algarve and were in a good position to start the new campaign with a win, but couldn't extend their lead and were eventually made to pay for that.
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Portugal were much better in the second period and, with 15 minutes to play, Kika Nazareth, the Barcelona talent who was introduced on the hour, scored a well-deserved equaliser. The hosts could've even got more from the game, such was their momentum, but the score was 1-1 when the full-time whistle went.
WHAT WIEGMAN SAID
Asked about England's more disappointing second half performance, Wiegman told : "They brought a lot more players up front, they changed their shape and we were figuring it out. At the end, we did figure it out and the first moment they came through, they scored that goal really well, but on the other hand we could've done better there. We know that. Then we [improved] the organisation and we pushed a little more too. Unfortunately, we couldn't get another goal.
"Of course, I'd hoped to have come away with more. I think we played a very good first half. I think we could've got some more goals, that would've helped. The second half, they changed their shape. We had to adapt to that. Then when they started to push, we hoped to keep the ball better. We want to do that better next time."
DID YOU KNOW?
Elsewhere on Friday night, Spain came back from behind to beat Belgium 3-2 in the other game in England's Nations League group. The world champions were 2-0 down with less than 15 minutes to go but eventually fought back, with Lucia Garcia scoring a 92nd minute equaliser and Cristina Martin-Prieto bagging the winner in the 96th minute.
