Three months and six games on from victory in a World Cup quarter-final, England finally have another win.
Tuesday’s laboured 1-0 friendly success over Portugal in Lisbon ended a five-game winless run – including World Cup semi-final and third-place play-off defeats, as well as friendly losses to Norway and Brazil.
It was the result England boss Phil Neville craved in what he called a “must-win” game, but with a showcase match at Wembley next month and a home Euros looming, the emphasis now has to be on improving performances.
The Lionesses host Germany on 9 November with 77,000 tickets sold, a record for an England women’s home match.
It’s an opportunity to spotlight their talents, but are England in a place to capitalise?
They had conceded nine goals since the defeat by the USA before the victory over Portugal – England’s first clean sheet since a 3-0 win over Norway in France.
And earlier this week, Neville said the focus was solely on getting a result in order to end the “period of suffering” and insisted he was not feeling “vulnerable” about his position as manager.
The women’s game in England has attempted to capitalise on the Lionesses’ run at the World Cup, when a record-breaking 11.7m watched the semi-final loss to the USA on the BBC.
Attendances have risen across the Women’s Super League and a new record was set on the opening weekend at Etihad Stadium as Manchester City beat rivals Manchester United in front of 31,000 fans.
On top of that, more games are being played at men’s stadiums – Chelsea welcomed 24,564 supporters with free tickets to Stamford Bridge in September.
As Euro 2021 hosts, England are not playing competitive qualifiers, and while that has perhaps contributed to flat performances since the summer, the poor results could threaten to dampen the initial buzz felt by a new audience after the World Cup.