Sarina Wiegman said England were missing “ruthlessness” as her side edged past Haiti in their World Cup opener. It was an edgy performance from the Lionesses who relied on a first-half penalty from Georgia Stanway to earn a valuable three points.
“We played a very hard game,” the head coach said. “We were absolutely ready. But they played a very good game too. As we expected, they played unpredictably, very direct and very strong in the counterattack.”
“What we wanted to do is be on the ball all the time and we were. We created chances again. But we also had moments where we lost the ball a little quicker and then they were really quick in their counterattack. That was pretty hard for us.”
It was a display from the European champions that posed a few questions, particularly in defensive areas. Despite dominating possession throughout, they struggled to handle Haiti’s tireless and energetic press. It caused them to lose possession on multiple occasions and the pace and qualityof Les Grenadières’ star Melchie Dumornay, caused problems particularly in the first half. They were also denied by the brilliance of the goalkeeper Kerly Théus.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
“I would say [we were missing] ruthlessness,” added Wiegman. “It’s easy to say, so what does that mean? Sometimes the connections with the cross, the timing of the cross, where the cross actuallyends in the penalty box, then the connection in front of the goal. Little things like that, at the end, you hope it goes in.
“We were very close a couple of times to scoring a goal, and then of course their defence was tough too, so we just keep trying, keep working on it and start tomorrow again.”
England’s problems in front of goal continued and it is now three internationals – plus one behind-closed-doors fixture against Canada – when they have failed to score from open play. Wiegman was encouraged by the chances that were created but pointed once again to the need to be more clinical.
“We were very close,” she said. “[But] we were sometimes too close to the goalkeeper, who was courageous. Sometimes we had the last pass instead of shooting ourselves. I hope in the next game we can score a goal in open play.”
Stanway echoed her manager on the challenge Haiti had posed. “They caused us problems. They threatened the counterattack and they were fast. They were physical and they challenged us in areas that we probably didn’t expect.“It’s so important to win your first game going into a tournament,. It has been a long build-up and we’re happy to just get over the line.”
Haiti’s manager, Nicolas Délepine, was proud of his team’s performance on their World Cup debut. “We’ve worked very hard and for us it was a huge test” he said. “We didn’t really know how to place ourselves [against them]. We weren’t sure how we were going to play but we were able to pull it out of the bag.”
