England fans visiting here for the first time stopped and stared at Anish Kapoor’s giant, £2.7m, Temenos sculpture. A startling steel and wire fantasy installed a long goal-kick from the Riverside, it resembles a vast butterfly net but is intended to symbolise a “place of sanctuary for the soul”.
Phil Neville may beg to disagree. For England’s manager there was to be no respite from increasing scrutiny and criticism on the banks of the River Tees where his Lionesses failed to win for a fifth successive game.
Four of those fixtures have been defeats and the last time England endured such a poor run – back in 2013 – it led to the sacking of their coach, Hope Powell.
Six years on, the context is different and Neville is highly unlikely to be dismissed but he will still surely be haunted by the boos that rang, albeit briefly, from the crowd of 29,238 – a record for a women’s international in England staged outside Wembley – as Debinha scored her second goal for a supposedly fading Brazil.
Granted, Bethany England’s wonderful header reduced the deficit but, by then, the manager’s tactics and philosophy were already posing far more questions than answers. Not least among them is the Lionesses’ apparent inability to defend crosses.
Outwardly at least Neville was sanguine, painting the present run as an almost inevitable part of his team’s transition from pragmatism to purism.
“We will go through periods like this,” he said. “I’m not going to compromise the type of football I want to play, my values or my philosophy. We’ve always played open and we’ve always played brave.
“I’d rather play the type of football we played today and lose, than change. I want to play football that reflects me as a person. We’ll get better. I’m not concerned.”
Arguably, a little unlucky in the first half, the World Cup semi-finalists were out-manoeuvred by the Brazil coach, Pia Sundhage, and her clever second half substitutions and tactical tweaks.
“We should have been three-up at half-time but then we were hit by two sucker punches,” said Neville. “We didn’t clear two crosses but it’s just one of those periods when we’re getting punished for every little mistake. We didn’t get our just rewards but it’s the best atmosphere I’ve ever experienced in a women’s game, there was the tension you want and it was top-class. It wasn’t long‑ball football, it wasn’t kick and rush.”
Unfortunately, it was not particularly effective either. Despite England dominating possession and creating several half-chances, they had three shots on target in the first half. True, Nikita Parris had the ball in the net but it was disallowed for offside against Jodie Taylor.
Although Jill Scott and the returning Jordan Nobbs – freshly recovered from an ACL repair – impressed in midfield, Leah Williamson looked elegance personified alongside Steph Houghton in central defence and Beth Mead shone on the wing, England were let down by a succession of often suspect final balls.
The word ruthless seems to have gone missing from their vocabulary, while Parris seems to have lost some clarity of tactical thought.
Concentration lapses have cost England dear and their defence was confounded as Tamires shuffled the ball between her feet and dodged Parris before unleashing a chipped cross, which Debinha headed straight at Mary Earps. The danger appeared minimal but the goalkeeper misjudged the ball’s trajectory, allowing it to squirm beneath her hands.
After that, Brazil delighted in second-guessing England’s attempts to build patiently before waiting to pounce on the counter. Neville’s defence attempted to suck players out of position by passing it around at the back but that can prove a high-risk strategy, while even Lucy Bronze’s attacking instincts occasionally prove self-destructive.
Debinha bisected Houghton and Bronze to connect with the fall out from a right-wing cross and aided by a deflection her shot looped over Earps.
England stepped off the bench to register her first international goal but Neville must hope he finds a true sanctuary in Lisbon where the Lionesses play Portugal on Tuesday.
