
It is far too easy to fall into the trap of viewing this England team through rose-tinted glasses: this is a team who win games and have fun while doing so. After all, the Lionesses are the team who scored 20 against Latvia; the team who danced past Luxembourg and North Macedonia as they found a way to double figures; the team who made a mockery of any suggestion Norway were a top team with their 8-0 victory at the Euros.
In recent months that hasn’t been the case — two wingers would charge up the flanks and cross towards Alessia Russo, if couldn’t can't find a cross then they’d try and cut inside. Rinse and repeat. It hadn’t taken much of late for teams to sit back and stifle England – the code had been cracked and the attack was neutered.