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A new summer, a new tournament, the same goal: England’s World Cup campaign begins in earnest against Portugal on Saturday, with a final send-off match before the Lionesses head to Australia. A year ago, England were starting to pick up momentum on home soil before the Euros, continuing the winning run under Sarina Wiegman that would carry them all the way to Wembley - and from there, history. The same again? “I think the best thing we can do is just not compare,” said the midfielder and Euros winner Georgia Stanway. The Lionesses will once again be driven on by the chance to inspire the nation, but the challenge that awaits at the World Cup is completely different to the opportunity they seized so spectacularly last July. For one, this warm-up friendly against Portugal in Milton Keynes was not officially confirmed until just three weeks ago, following a dispute over release dates that threatened to compromise England’s preparations. It mirrored the hold-up over the TV rights deal for the tournament - another issue that was not resolved until mid-June. On both counts, there will have been too much uncertainty there for England’s liking. But finally, five weeks on from the end of the domestic season, attention returns to the pitch and England’s quest for glory. There is plenty to watch out for: Wiegman, memorably, named the same starting eleven across all six matches as the Lionesses won the Euros. Now, the England manager has a different squad to choose from, and a number of selection issues to decide upon if she plans to be as consistent in Australia. Wiegman is still in the process of figuring that out. The Lionesses, of course, are without last year’s captain Leah Williamson, the player of the Euros and golden boot winner Beth Mead, and the creative force of their midfield in Fran Kirby. Jill Scott, the leader in the camp at last year’s Euros, has retired and even though the Lionesses have played and won plenty of games since then, the dynamics in the squad ahead of a major tournament will be different as well. “There’s different experiences, there’s different competition now,” Wiegman said. “And there’s also in some positions really high competition.” The battle is already underway in camp and has been since England arrived at St George’s Park two weeks ago. Understandably, a lot of the focus on England ahead of the World Cup has been on the players who won’t be there, but Wiegman also faces a number of selection headaches that would be the envy of most if not all other managers at this summer’s tournament. Among them, Wiegman will have to decide who out of Alessia Russo, Rachel Daly or Beth England will be her starting striker at the Euros. Russo, who is set to join Arsenal after confirming her departure from Manchester United, had appeared to be the favourite but Daly arrives having struck 22 goals in the Women’s Super League for Aston Villa last season, and England scoring 12 in as many games with Tottenham. “The competition has been so high,” Russo said this week. “Rachel and Beth, we’re all competing”. On the wings, Lauren James, Chloe Kelly and Lauren Hemp are vying for two places - although that also offers Wiegman the chance to change games from the bench, which proved so key at the Euros last year. “The standard and depth is incredible,” said Jess Carter, who is favourite to get the nod at left back. “Everyone knows that in order to be successful at the World Cup we’ve all got to raise our level to a higher level. That’s what we’re all trying to do.” While Wiegman has options in the attacking positions, she faces headaches of a different sort in defence. Millie Bright, who will captain the Lionesses in Australia, has not played since March and will miss the Portugal match as she continues to recover from knee surgery. Alex Greenwood is fit to start despite an injury scare in training earlier this week, but it still means that England will start with a centre-back combination that is unlikely to play in the opening match against Haiti on July 22. Portugal will be making their World Cup debut this summer and while the tournament features an extensive list of contenders - the Selecao are not among them. It’s a match the Lionesses will be expected to win, and win well, following their defeat to Australia in their last outing back in April. “It’s always good to have those games before the tournament to see where we are, to see what things we need to work on,” said Ella Toone, another player who is looking to nail down a starting spot. “It’s a great game, a different test to what we are going to face as well. It’s always nice to play in a proper game before we go out to the World Cup.” Wiegman added that while England will prepare for Portugal to be “technical” and “play a possession game” - the visitors are “not afraid to play long ball” and have “speed up front”. The Lionesses will need to ensure that they deal with that more direct approach better than they managed when facing Australia and Sam Kerr, when Wiegman’s unbeaten run was brought to an end two months ago. But the focus now is on new starts: forget the Euros, forget what’s come before - England’s path to the World Cup start here. Read More Fifa reveal eight options for Women’s World Cup captains after ‘OneLove’ armband fallout in Qatar Women’s World Cup TV schedule: How to watch every match in UK When is the Women’s World Cup and what are the fixtures? Two warm-up games is ‘best preparation we can have’ – Sarina Wiegman ‘Very high’ expectations on England’s Lionesses at World Cup, Georgia Stanway says Alessia Russo fully focused on England after ‘tough’ summer of transfer talk

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Jason Knight has admitted the Republic of Ireland’s new generation must develop a ruthless streak if they are to fulfil their potential. A difficult Euro 2024 Group B campaign drew to its seemingly inevitable conclusion on Saturday evening when a 1-0 defeat by the Netherlands in Amsterdam sent the Dutch through to next summer’s finals in Germany and Ireland home to lick their wounds. Stephen Kenny’s men knew in advance of the game at the Johan Cruyff Arena that even the safety net of a play-off place via the Nations League had evaporated, and they were left to reflect upon home and away defeats by France, the Netherlands and Greece and a return of just six points at Gibraltar’s expense to show for their efforts. Asked what lessons they had learned, Bristol City midfielder Knight said: “It’s fresh, but playing against Holland and France is about having a clinical edge. “That’s been a large part of all the games we’ve been equal in: they’ve taken their chances and we haven’t. We defended well in large of parts of all the games. Looking back briefly off the top of my head, we lacked a bit of creative spark and those goals when we needed to capitalise. “The confidence is good. We’re playing some good attractive football at times. We’ve fallen on the wrong side of results against good teams. France and Netherlands aren’t minnows of world football. “There’s confidence within the group and definitely confidence we’ll turn it around.” Knight, 22, is one of the flag-bearers for Kenny’s drastically overhauled squad which has seen the manager promote from the Under-21 ranks and promote a front-foot approach. His efforts have met with limited success – Ireland have won just six of the 29 competitive games they have played under his charge, and that bottom line is perhaps the most potent weapon in the armoury of those calling for change. Kenny is out of contract after Tuesday night’s friendly against New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium and his future will be decided at a meeting of the Football Association of Ireland’s board on November 28 when members consider a review of the campaign. Whatever the outside noise, the 52-year-old’s his players remain steadfastly behind him and Knight reiterated that message when asked about the future. He said: “Well, my view is that the manager is still here and we’re treating it as so. The manager has been great to me and the players. We want to be winning more games for him, but we’ll see what happens.” Defeat in Amsterdam came courtesy of Wout Weghorst’s 12th-minute strike, although the game was not as close as the scoreline suggested and but for some less than effective finishing and the efforts of Republic keeper Gavin Bazunu, Ronald Koeman’s men could have had qualification tied up long before the final whistle. Knight said: “We wanted a good performance and result, which ultimately we didn’t do. There were good parts to it. We just lacked a bit of creativity and cutting edge up top. “There’s no doubt they’re a good team, but we can certainly be better in all aspects of our game, especially creating and scoring goals.” Read More Neco Williams confident Armenia can aid Wales’ Euro 2024 qualification bid On this day in 2019: Mauricio Pochettino sacked by Tottenham Stephen Kenny confident with Republic of Ireland’s solid base for bright future England full-back Kieran Trippier not taking his place at Euro 2024 as a given Wout Weghorst fires Netherlands to Euro 2024 as Ireland end with whimper Saracens overcome injuries to England stars in thrashing of Harlequins

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