Kirby backs Engl

England striker Fran Kirby has said it is “absolutely not” too early to consider the Lionesses potential World Cup 2019 winners after they began their tournament preparations with a friendly victory over this year’s Copa America Femenina winners Brazil.

Kirby scored what turned out to be the winning goal after just two minutes when she headed home Nikita Parris’s cross.

“We’ve had two semi-finals now [World Cup 2015 and Euro 2017] and we felt the hurt in both of them,” Kirby said. “It was very disappointing for us, so we need to make sure we learn from them and go all the way to the final. But we’ve proved ourselves. We’ve got the experience now. We want to make sure we go all the way and we’ve got players who are fully dedicated to just winning, winning, winning.”

Kirby was the side’s focal point in a match billed as a battle of the two No 10s. Kirby’s opposite number, Marta, is widely regarded as the greatest female player of all time and was crowned – albeit controversially – Fifa World Player of the Year for the sixth time last month. However, she was substituted after 22 minutes with a hamstring injury on Saturday.

“I’d still take my No10 over Brazil’s No10, that’s for sure,” said Phil Neville, England’s head coach. “I don’t think Fran realises her full potential yet. There was a 10, 15-minute period after half-time where I thought she was world class. She can do virtually everything.

“I’ll play her wherever we can get her on the ball, whether that’s at nine, 10 or in a three in midfield.”

Kirby assumed a deeper role in England’s 4-2-3-1 than she typically does for Chelsea but endorsed the Lionesses’s tactical evolution under Neville.

“We’ve been saying for a long time that we want to be a team that gets the ball down and plays quick football,” she said. “I feel like I can express myself under him. He wants me to be brave. He wants us