SheBelieves Cup: England coach Mark Sampson aims high after going ‘toe to toe’ with world's best

The England Women’s head coach, Mark Sampson, has ambitiously set his sights on world domination after a creditable performance at the SheBelieves Cup in America.

Sampson’s team finished third in the four-nation tournament after losing their first two games, 1-0 to the US, the world champions, and 2-1 to the European champions Germany, before a goalless draw with France.

Against the top three teams in the world the head coach had handed his fifth-ranked team the daunting task of winning the tournament. That proved a task too far, but England gave as good as they got for the majority of the three games.

“We’ve gone toe to toe with the best three teams in the world,” Sampson said, “and, although we’ve not got over the line we’ve come on so much over the course of 10 days.

“I’m told these top teams should be our benchmark, but our benchmark now is to be No 1 ourselves and have them trying to catch up England.”

If they are to achieve Sampson’s lofty aim there is still plenty of room for improvement on the evidence here.

A solid opening performance against the US ended in defeat through one moment of slackness which led to the goal of the tournament.

An excellent start against Germany brought an early goal for the Manchester City striker Toni Duggan, but although they continued to press for a while the initiative was lost. Both Germany goals were unluckily conceded, but defending too deeply after the opening quarter of the match was as much to blame for England’s defeat.

A much higher line was then held against France, almost proving costly in the first half-hour of the game but then providing the base from which a series of threatening second-half attacks was mounted, though without any clear-cut scoring opportunities being created.

Creating chances and scoring from them against the leading nations are England’s problem areas in their pursuit of Sampson’s top of the world target, but the coach insists they are on the right track

“Chances don’t come around too often in these games,” he noted, “but the way the team are moving forward now we’ll get more chances and start executing them. We need to have the belief in the final third, and that’s coming.

“The challenge for us is to get over the line against these teams. We’re getting closer and the nice thing is that we’re in this bracket [as a world power], but we’ve got to be judged on results now.”