England manager Phil Neville: Scotland the ‘most difficult group game’ at Women’s World Cup
Written by News on 09/06/2019
Phil Neville believes England’s 2019 World Cup opener against Scotland in Nice will be the “most difficult group game” of the competition.
After defeating Denmark 2-0 in their opening World Cup warm-up match courtesy of goals from Nikita Parris and Jill Scott, the Lionesses suffered a surprise 1-0 loss to New Zealand at the Amex Stadium.
Neville, who guided England to SheBelieves Cup glory in March, says that his side have learned to manage the expectation which comes with being tournament favourites ahead of the “most difficult first game out of any in the competition” against Scotland on Sunday.
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The England boss said: “Tomorrow we have the most difficult first game out of any team in the competition because it’s our nearest rivals.
“It’s a team we have a lot of respect for and the players know each other. We are just looking to keep building the confidence and belief we’ve got and grow into the tournament.
“You have to break the competition down into small sectors and we are under no illusions as to the performance that is needed.”
“I think we have been handling this type of expectation for the last 12 months, probably since I came into the job and we played France 16 months ago when the eyes and expectation were on us; we like and we know the pressure that is on us and we aren’t going to hide away from it.
“We know we’re favourites for the game with our world ranking, but I have watched a lot of them and their manager is a class act.
“This is by far our most difficult group game, Scotland can go a long way into the competition.”
A hat-trick from Jodie Taylor, as well as goals from Ellen White, Toni Duggan and Jordan Nobbs helped England to a 6-0 victory in their last meeting with Scotland at Euro 2017.
England were knocked out of the European Championship two years ago when they lost 3-0 to the Netherlands in the semi-finals, and were also eliminated at the last four when they lost to Japan 2-1 in the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
Despite those two major tournament defeats in the latter stages, Neville believes his squad can rekindle the spirit shown there and go one better in France this summer.
“We want to recreate the spirit of the 2015 team,” he said.
“We didn’t have the pressure then as we do now, if we want to be successful I want the togetherness and spirit of that team, if we don’t we will end up with egg on our faces.
“I don’t see us having a strong 11, but I see us as a strong group of 23 players.
“The easiest thing in the world is to pick the same 11 at a tournament every game.
“USA used 19-20 players when they won the World Cup. I have trust and belief in my players and my players have bought into it.”
Demi Stokes (knee) and Toni Duggan (thigh) have both picked up knocks since England’s game against Denmark, but Neville is confident that the pair will be available for the clash against Scotland.
(c) Sky News 2019: England manager Phil Neville: Scotland the ‘most difficult group game’ at Women’s World Cup
