City's Esme Morgan, Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood, Laura Coombs and Chloe Kelly all featured as England’s World Cup preparations began with a 0-0 draw with Portugal.

The prestigious tournament, which is being held in Australia and New Zealand, is fast approaching and begins on 20 July – with excitement levels growing day-by-day.

Sarina Wiegman’s side’s meeting with their European counterparts was their first and final warm-up match before they begin their World Cup campaign against Haiti on Saturday 22 July.
In total, six members of Gareth Taylor‘s side were included in the Lionesses squad for the competition, with three of those starting at Stadium MK on Saturday afternoon.

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Despite England maintaining 67% of possession in the first half, Portugal were valiantly defending and kept the scoreline goalless heading into half-time.

Hemp was a constant thorn in their opponent’s side and almost exquisitely created the game’s opener when she delivered a pinpoint cross into the box before Georgia Stanway struck the woodwork.

Kelly was introduced at the interval and it didn’t take City’s skilful winger long to make an impact as she weaved through a crowd of bodies to tee up Alessia Russo whose drilled shot flew just wide.

However, frustration continued to grow in Milton Keynes with the game’s first goal yet to arrive with 10 minutes remaining. 

Having also entered the pitch from the substitutes, Laura Coombs almost snatched a late winner when she sent a well improvised effort towards goal from 10-yards, but Inês Pereira held well. 

Russo came close again in second-half additional time, but the goal they craved just evaded them before the referee blew the whistle for full-time.

Next up for England is their World Cup opener with Haiti on Saturday 22 July before further Group D meetings with Denmark (28 July) and China (1 August).