Alessia Russo says that England have lots of lessons to learn following their April fixtures against Brazil and Australia.
The Lionesses defeated Brazil 4-2 on penalties at Wembley to win the inaugural Women’s Finalissima before slipping to a 2-0 defeat to FIFA Women’s World Cup co-hosts Australia in Brentford last night.
When speaking to the media following the Australia defeat, Russo said that there are lots of learnings for the Lionesses to take away from their latest two matches.
“I’m gutted,” Russo said after England’s 30-match unbeaten streak came to an end. “These last two games have been huge learning curves for us, it was great to have top opposition to practice against for the World Cup, these are the games that you want to be playing.
“Unfortunately, tonight we didn’t get the win but we will take so much from this going into the World Cup.”
It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise that England have tasted defeat under head coach Sarina Wiegman for the first time before the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Russo said that losing is not a nice feeling before again emphasising the importance of taking away the learnings.
She said “We don’t like losing and I’d never say that I’d want to lose a football game to learn from it but I think it is important to have these lessons.
“I think there’s loads that we can take from Brazil, even though we won, and from this game too. The first and second halves, the standards can be higher and we will reflect on that as players and staff then take it into the next few months of our preparation.”
The quality of the pitch at the Gtech Community Stadium was poor with persistent rain leaving the 20-yard areas very heavy while other areas were lively. Russo was in no mood to blame the conditions for England’s defeat.
“Obviously, the conditions weren’t ideal, the pitch was slick but that’s football and that’s England, it rains all of the time,” Russo said. “We can’t blame the conditions because they had the same conditions as us.
“It is something for us to take into account but we can’t blame the conditions.”
The England squad will regroup again in late spring ahead of their final preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.