IT’S ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT FOR ENGLAND

ENGLAND located the high road to France with an object lesson in the importance of making possession count. This was a very substantial crowd and a very significant performance to ease the anxiety created by Friday’s false start against Canada. The opposition are technocrats in their own nation’s way and began the game dominating the ball as they did two years ago, when commanding 70 per cent of possession in a 2-0 defeat by Mark Sampson’s England at the 2017 European Championship. But Phil Neville’s players revealed a capacity to break out with precision passing and pace on a night which burnished the reputation of Jade Moore as much as scorers Bethany Mead and Ellen White. Moore’s vision and spatial awareness, which helped supply the opener, have been missing during her struggles with injury. Her critical pass, which sent Toni Duggan into the left side of Spain’s area, was not the first she had created in a position of danger for England. Duggan, England’s creative nexus, found White who was fractionally offside when drilling the ball across which Mead converted at the back post converted. Jill Scott supplied the second, 46 seconds after the restart, whipping a ball from the England right that White volleyed home, though equally significant was the way Rachel