England Women vs Denmark Women: Goals at a premium in Sydney

Greenwood: Lionesses’ pack forming stronger relationships

England defender Alex Greenwood is confident vital new connections are forming in camp that will see an improved display when the Lionesses take on Denmark.

England’s nervy victory against underdogs Haiti did little to ease concerns about their attack as it extended the streak without a goal from open play to three matches.

Yet this is a much-changed line-up from last summer’s European Championship triumph, with Sarina Wiegman’s starting line-up in Brisbane showing five changes from the one that lifted that trophy almost a year ago.

Greenwood, who replaced now-forward Rachel Daly at left-back against Haiti, said: “I was prepared. I knew my role in the team and whether that’s centre-back or that’s left-back, we’ve all played in those positions before whether that’s at club or country.

“We might not play together every week at club level but we’re very familiar with each other.

“And that’s in training, we’ve been in training camp for three weeks together before the tournament started and that’s enough time to prepare for your partnerships.

“You build up relationships but as a tournament starts those things develop naturally as well. So for us, again, it’s just about keeping doing that in training, keeping forming those partnerships and eventually it will come together.

“I think it’s a case of coming together and trying different things with different people. Everyone has different strengths and our wingers are all so gifted in different ways.

“Whoever you play with you try and play to their strengths.”

Russo admits to room for improvement

England have now checked into their World Cup base on the New South Wales’ Central Coast ahead of facing world number 13 Denmark before concluding the group campaign by taking on 14th-placed China in Adelaide.

Russo, who on Saturday was favoured for the centre-forward role by Wiegman over Women’s Super League Golden Boot winner Daly, was one of the only England players to admit their first half against Haiti looked a bit rusty.

She said: “Yeah, I think so. Us as players are the first to recognise that.

“We’ll be back to training this week and training hard to push on now but tournaments are always about winning and that’s the most important thing.

“I don’t think I ever worry about goals and winning with this team. I think we’ve got a very special talented squad and I know that people show up at the right times.

“The first game, we’ve been building up to it for a long time. It’s done now, three points under the belt. Now we really push on.

“Moments were good and we’ll reflect on it, we’ll analyse and we’ll be ready for Denmark.”

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