Lionesses learn little on the first lap of their post-Euros victory parade

This was the first match England had played since their victorious trip to Switzerland, and forms part of their “homecoming” tour which will see them take on four countries from four different continents at four stadiums over the next two months. They are being paraded around the country like prize show ponies for adoring fans. There is no need to think too hard about the football.

Not thinking too hard about the football could be England’s mantra under Sarina Wiegman. Their Euros win was achieved in spite of themselves, given the way they struggled at almost every stage of the tournament. This is their opportunity to bask in the sun – or at least the cold Manchester evening air – before they get to the business of thinking about the World Cup in two summers’ time.

That World Cup will take place in the country of their opponents, Brazil. On this evidence it could be tough going. England found themselves two goals down within 18 minutes. A red card for Angelina three minutes later, after pulling down Ella Toone when she was through on goal, meant this really did become an exhibition match, rather than a learning exercise.

Wiegman’s selection choices were those of a woman intent on not learning anyway. This was not an England line-up to get the blood pumping with players picked by necessity as opposed to inventiveness. Captain Leah Williamson was just one of a number of absentees due to injury. Neither Lauren was available – Hemp or James – leaving England without their two most creative players. Euros hero Hannah Hampton had pulled out of the squad with a small elbow issue.

That meant that Khiara Keating finally managed to make her debut, at the stadium of her childhood club, becoming the first Black woman to play in goal for England, and only the second Black England goalkeeper after David James. It had been a significant worry that neither of England’s back-up goalkeepers at the Euros had ever played for their national team, following Mary Earps’s shock retirement. But it is hard to get overly excited about Keating’s debut given that Hampton will no doubt be England’s first-choice goalkeeper for the next World Cup and the one after that and potentially even the one after that.

There is no point imagining anyone will supplant Keira Walsh or Georgia Stanway prior to Brazil 2027 either. But could Wiegman say with a straight face that Beth Mead, who will be 32, will start when England play their opening game? Alessia Russo feels dead set to be England’s starting striker, regardless of the development of Aggie Beever-Jones (subbed on after 64 minutes) or Michelle Agyemang (subbed on after 82 minutes to the biggest cheer of the night). That’s how Wiegman works. She is stubborn.

So stubborn that onlookers were treated to the Maya Le Tissier right-back experiment, live, in the flesh, and out of position for both of Brazil’s goals. It is a positional obstinance that so rattled the Manchester United social media administrator that they were forced to tweet: “Maya Le Tissier has started 104 games for United. 103 of them have been at centre-back.” Somehow, Wiegman’s insistence that Le Tissier has to play out wide is less embarrassing than whatever this decision was.

Given all of this, given what is known of Wiegman, who is so relentlessly predictable that her chopping and changing of line-ups at the Euros would be narrated by David Attenborough in a nature documentary about her as an obvious sign of distress, why should any experimentation be expected? Wiegman’s England is something that has to just be accepted and experienced, rather than fought against.

It is perfectly reasonable to question whether it matters that England still aren’t very good. The summer taught us that the most spectacular element of this Lionesses team is their ability to throw off their Englishness and win despite a commitment to being rubbish. The summer also taught us that surely a football team cannot have this many lives. That surely they can be better than this. It certainly does not matter right now that they are not good, given all of the injuries. It will matter at some point.

There was nothing to really be found out in a game played out like this. Some of this is up to Wiegman, some of this is the result of having to play against an organised Brazil team willing to defend relentlessly with ten players for 70 minutes. The games against Australia, Ghana and China may well bring an opportunity for more experimentation. It is worth continuing to be hopeful, but on no circumstances should anyone hold their breath.

Photograph by Peter Powell/AFP