Chelsea captain Millie Bright said the Lionesses’ approach was “proper English” following their big 1-0 Nations League victory over Spain.
Jess Park scored the only goal in the 33rd minute at Wembley Stadium in what was the first meeting between world number four England and second-ranked Spain since the latter beat the former in the 2023 World Cup final.
It was a much more cohesive effort than their 1-1 competition-opening draw with Portugal on Friday, and one Sarina Wiegman’s side will hope sends a message ahead of their European title defence in Switzerland this summer.
“After the last game, I think we said we are a new team, we’re on a new journey, and we’ve been working really hard to build those connections,” said Bright.
“And after the last game we wanted to be even more connected. And to be honest, we spoke about just being proper English and having that fight and that desire to defend for each other, work hard for each other and be hard to beat.
“I think it’s so important in football to be hard to beat, first and foremost, and obviously getting the clean sheet, I think you’ve seen the performance from everyone.
“Yeah, it was outstanding.”
Spain came close to an opener when Lucia Garcia clipped the underside of the crossbar from a corner in the first half.
But it was Manchester City’s Park who ultimately scored the game’s only goal after some excellent work from Arsenal striker Alessia Russo, who carved through the Spanish defence then had an attempt blocked by Spain skipper Irene Paredes.
The rebound fell favourably for Park, who prodded home, and England were able to cling on for the clean sheet despite a considerable Spanish threat thanks to a strong defensive effort.
England boss Wiegman agreed with Bright’s “proper English” assessment, saying victory was a result of “working hard, being together as a team, I think that’s what you can see today.
“I think we had a point to prove, we just wanted to do a lot better than Friday,” she added. “I think on Friday we spoke about the fact we have momentum, and then of course we tied, and we wanted to prove to ourselves we can do better.
“And we absolutely knew that we had to step up and do better.”
Spain boss Montse Tome singled out Chelsea winger Lauren James, who created a number of chances and was also strong defensively.
She said: “We had chances that we simply didn’t take. That’s a scenario that we need to improve on and we will improve.
“England could have scored more as well. Cata Coll made at least three very good saves, it was a high-level match.
“England scored their goal, we didn’t, and we just need to keep improving for the next game.”
