England’s double-header against Norway and Sweden will help motivate them for an assault on this summer’s European Championship finals, said head coach Mark Sampson.
The Lionesses slipped to a first defeat in 11 matches as Ada Hegerberg’s header gave Norway a 1-0 win in La Manga on Sunday afternoon.
Sampson’s squad are still in pre-season training with their club sides and are not operating at full fitness, but he was pleased with their application.
He said: “To put it into context, the players haven’t really kicked a ball in two months. There was a genuine bit of rustiness there and I expected that.
“We didn’t start well but we got to grips with things, got our pressing structures right and moved the ball around well.
“We probably created more goalscoring chances against Norway than we have done in our last three games put together.
“We were up against an excellent Norwegian team. But in the second half we controlled the game, we played in their half and put some good balls into the box.
“It was just that lack of a clinical touch or the lack of a final pass to get that goal we needed.
“The pleasing thing for me was that we grew into the game and found a nice rhythm.”
England will take on Olympic silver medallists Sweden on Tuesday – and Sampson expects his starting eleven to be a lot different to the Norway game.
He said: “We will make a lot of changes. The players are still in pre-season and most of them played 90 minutes against Norway.
“That will be the first 90 minutes they have played in a long time.
“This is a ‘well-being’ camp. We want to check-in with players, make sure they’re on the right path and steer them in the direction we want them to go in.
“We want to send them back to their clubs the way they came.
“We want to spur them on for the big year we’ve got coming up.
“And these two matches, against two top-quality sides, will certainly do that.”
Sampson also expressed his delight at Ellen White’s return to the fold, following a four-month lay-off with a broken collarbone.
He said: “It’s really nice to have Ellen back. She’s an outstanding player and an important character to have around the group so we were delighted to see her back.
“She was back at home on the pitch. She didn’t quite have her finishing boots on but showed great movement to cause their defence some problems.”
England have been drawn in Group D at the Euros alongside Scotland, Spain and Portugal.
