'That was hard for us' - Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman highlights 'struggle moments' as England respond to Germany loss with narrow win over South Africa

England narrowly emerged 2-1 winners in Coventry in their second friendly of this international window, bouncing back from a difficult 4-3 defeat to Germany on Friday night. South Africa could've easily got a draw from the game though, with the Lionesses often gifting them opportunities in the second half in particular.

It didn't look like things would be hard for England when Leah Williamson scored after just 12 minutes, or when Grace Clinton doubled that lead midway through the first half. But Williamson's poor pass allowed Thembi Kgatlana to halve the deficit before the hour and many of her team-mates made similar mistakes before full-time, albeit ones that went unpunished as the Lionesses claimed the win.

Offering her thoughts on the result and the performance afterwards, Wiegman told ITV: "I thought after the first half, it was a little more straight-forward. I think the first half, we played well. The second half, we had some struggle moments. I think we were a little bit too sloppy. I think the first half we had sloppy moments too but we created some chances from corners and also just in open play. The second half... we were a little bit sloppy and they're smart in a counter attack and very fast so, of course, that was hard for us."

Asked how she and her team fix that sloppiness, which was a huge problem against Germany as well, Wiegman responded: "Keep trying. We all know that. Keep playing football, keep playing forwards and, of course, talking about taking that out. Some passes are, I think, easy, and some are in connections and just feeling at moments when there was transition, they would really jump on us, and then making some better decisions. Just talk about it and move forward."

England will need to be sharper for their next fixture, with them set to welcome Emma Hayes' United States to Wembley in November. Despite only being in her new job for a few weeks, Hayes led the U.S. to an Olympic gold medal this summer and the lively attack was a particularly important factor in that triumph.

For now though, the Lionesses will now return to their respective clubs and look to produce good form that puts them in contention to start that big game against the U.S. next month.