England wore red shirts for their Women's World Cup clash with Germany  in Shanghai - but 1966 is a long way away now. And while the Germans quickly organised themselves into a shooting drill in the warm-up, England resembled a pub team with a couple of players kicking balls around talking about last night’s drinking session.

When the game started, England continued to look like amateurs with a couple of wild swings at the ball and a nasty defensive mix-up. On the other hand, world champions Germany looked cool enough but failed to hold the excellent technique showed in the warm-up while under pressure from the English girls.

Sometimes you hear football managers talk about something called “shape” - meaning the way the defenders line up and position themselves when they are trying to win the ball back. England were excellent at this but amateur mistakes in the middle of the park threatened to undo all the hours of preparation on the training ground.

'One of the German central defenders punched the air in relief even though her team had only secured a point'

England looked dangerous in attack on both wings with Karen Carney and Jill Scott getting behind the German defence and causing problems but failing to place the final pass from the byline.

England had a well-planned free-kick routine with three players running around causing mayhem but consistently missed the target or fired the ball into the wall.

Germany were pinned back and, playing with single striker found it difficult to break out and turn defence into attack. Another mix-up between an England defender and the goalkeeper caused the packed and largely female Shanghai crowd to gasp in horror - but the ball bounced slowly past the post and out for a corner.