Neville: Blame for poor results rests with me
A crowd of 77,768 is a new attendance record for an England Women’s game but a less favourable one persists: one win in seven. At the death, Klara Buhl slotted low beneath Mary Earps after turning an out-of-form Steph Houghton and England, for all their late pressure, will hear that statistic a little longer.
“One in seven is totally unacceptable,” said Phil Neville, the England manager. “It is not what I see as success and we need to do something about it very quickly. We can talk about the emotional highs of the World Cup, but when you get into November that becomes an excuse. And we’re not having any excuses. I’ve got to take responsibility. Start with me and finish with me.”
It had been a difficult evening, to say the least, but for the biggest women’s football crowd since London 2012 there was at least one worthwhile moment. There was no one else it could have been and somehow no other finish would have felt apt, either.
As England emerged from a bruising half-hour period where they had been comprehensively outplayed by the two-times world champions, Ellen White, the joint-World Cup golden boot winner, plunged into the sliding, toe-poked finish that defined her summer. Keira Walsh’s flighted delivery was timed to perfection, and White was similarly punctual. Trains and tubes and trams can only dream of exhibiting the kind of mechanical reliability White has for England.
But there were issues. Nikita Parris has now missed her past three penalties, and England their past four when you count Houghton’s in the World
Cup semi-final. Parris was impassive when her spot kick down the middle was met by the hand of Germany goalkeeper Merle Frohms, diverting the ball on to her outstretched leg before it careered on to the roof of the net. White, in England’s best passage of play up to that point, had clawed the ball into Beth Mead’s vicinity and the Arsenal forward, trundling free, had been felled by Frohms. Of all the criticism that has been levelled at Neville of late, his side’s performance from the spot is the most justified.
“I had total confidence that [Parris] would score – she wanted to take the penalty,” Neville said. “I’m never going to criticise anyone that stands up there, but we need to start sticking them away. I’m never one to take a penalty off someone if she feels she’s confident.”
By his own admission, they needed a performance here, and had to play better, probably, than they ever had under him; a penny for his thoughts, then, when Lena Oberdorf picked out Alexandra Popp to fire at Earps from point-blank range and the Manchester United keeper plunged low to direct the shot on to the bar. The game was two minutes old.
For the ensuing 30 minutes, it was all Neville could do to watch his side dismantled piece-by-piece with grim, detached precision, the World Cup’s fourth-placed team reduced to hunting recently disappeared shadows in the darkness of the Wembley night.
No moment embodied this better than the opener and the whirr of chips and cutbacks in which Kathrin Hendrich’s cross was brought down by Dzsenifer Marozsan and the Lyon playmaker sent a perfect chip into the feet of Popp. It was a sign of how powerful they were on the counter that an England corner won by Parris ended with Leah Williamson hacking the ball clear at the other end, with Earps skidding into a save from Buhl.
Germany thought they had their second, after the break, when Earps spilt the ball into the path of Lina Magull, who prodded home from an offside position. In their defence, England should have been playing against 10. The stretcher was summoned – albeit not needed – after Sara Doorsoun hurtled into a high tackle on Mead, as badly timed a challenge as you will see, and if nothing else Mead would have left Wembley grateful that her knee ligaments were intact.
It is difficult to resist the feeling that Stephanie Frappart, the first woman to referee a major men’s European match, got this one wrong, and had VAR been in use perhaps it would also have found that White was two yards offside for England’s equaliser. Substitutes Georgia Stanway, Jodie Taylor and Lauren Hemp were valuable for England but Germany’s greater class told.
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