England Women finally broke a disconcerting winless streak on Tuesday when they snatched a narrow 1-0 win over Portugal, their first victory of any kind at the sixth attempt since hammering Norway in the quarter-finals of the World Cup during the summer.
The Lionesses ran the United States very close in the semi-finals of the competition, but defeat to Sweden in a playoff that manager Phil Neville unwisely branded a ‘nonsense game’, followed by poor results against Belgium, Norway and Brazil brought things crashing back to earth.
The Sweden loss was perhaps understandable in the circumstances, in the same way that England capitalised on German malaise to claim third place four years earlier.