England Women coach Hege Riise laments lack of chances after Lionesses lose Canada friendly

Hege Riise’s England have now lost back-to-back friendlies

(The FA via Getty Images)

Hege Riise was left frustrated by her side’s lack of creativity as England Women slumped to a second successive friendly defeat against Canada on Tuesday night.

After a 3-1 loss in France on Friday, the Lionesses were defeated again 2-0 at Stoke’s bet365 Stadium courtesy of goals from Evelyne Viens and Nichelle Prince.

Both efforts came courtesy of defensive errors amid the absence of influential captain Steph Houghton, with Demi Stokes and goalkeeper Karen Bardsley at fault.

However, it was the lack of opportunities at the other end of the pitch that most disappointed interim head coach Riise, whose side were guilty of not taking their chances created against France in Caen last week.

"I'm disappointed that we lost this game. I feel like the thing that I'm most disappointed in is that we don't create chances - not enough,” Riise said.

"We had the ball, we switched the play better second half than first half, but we don't create enough to get the goals.

"We were a bit stressed with the ball, Canada aggressive in the pressure, so that was the struggle I think we had today."

The Norwegian added: “She (Houghton) has been captain for England for how many years, so of course you miss a captain and a leader.

"But I feel like it was more of a mistake today and you can never predict that.

"I feel the team effort was good. We tried, we hold together as a team and we fight, even though we were one goal down early. We kept going and I felt like we did well in the game - except the chances that we didn't create.

"I'm very confident that next time we'll learn from this. I'm happy having these two games, it's good to see all the players and moving forward I'm confident that we will perform better."

Additional reporting by PA.

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