England boss Neville highlights improvement in goalkeeping after victory in Le Havre

England boss Phil Neville believes that the standard of goalkeeping has improved massively during the last 12 months.

The Lionesses defeated a plucky Argentina outfit 1-0 at the Stade Oceane in Le Havre last night but the scoreline could have been significantly greater if not for a wonderful display from opposition goalkeeper Vanina Correa.

Correa was at full-stretch as she kept out a first half Nikita Parris penalty kick while she denied Beth Mead when one-on-one before superbly blocking another Parris effort in the second half.

Speaking about the Argentina veteran after the match, Neville said “Goalkeepers in women’s football get a lot of criticism but what she (Correa) has done tonight is show world class ability.

“I think the standard of goalkeeping in the last 12 months, especially with the goalkeeping coaches which we’ve got, has risen and I think that it’s incredible.

“Not enough respect goes to the coaches which are coaching them and not enough respect goes to the goalkeepers who are in goal performing fantastically.

“Against New Zealand Erin Nayler put in a fantastic performance against us.

“That save against Nikita Parris today was world class.”

Despite having three goalkeepers in the England squad, there were many more which manager Neville could have selected for the Women’s World Cup France 2019 and he went on to highlight the quality of goalkeeping in the English game.

He added “We’ve got three outstanding goalkeepers in the squad.

“I think we’ve probably got six or seven England internationals in the FAWSL in our pathway that are all at a fantastic level.”

England complete their matches in Group D with a fixture against Japan in Nice on Wednesday.

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of FAWSL Full-Time magazine. I have been reporting on men’s and women’s football at various levels since summer 2015. Some of the events which I have reported from include the 2017 UEFA Women’s European Championship, 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, SSE Women’s FA Cup final, Emirates FA Cup final, UEFA Europa League, English Football League and various international matches.

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