Following a lacklustre performance by the European champions in a 1-0 victory over Haiti to open their FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign on Saturday, Sarina Wiegman urged her England team to be more ruthless.

However, as they laboured to a close victory against the World Cup debutants in Brisbane, England, who are anticipated to be the main contenders to the United States, looked anything from champions.

With only two shots on goal against England’s 10, Haiti never really got going, and in the end, Georgia Stanway’s penalty kick in the opening period decided the match.

To protect their advantage, the Lionesses also needed a superb save from goalkeeper Mary Earps late in the game.

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“We need more ruthlessness,” Wiegman, who took England to victory at last year’s Euros, said.

“We went very close a couple of times, and their defence was tough too, but we need to keep trying, keep working on it, starting tomorrow.”

Match-winner Stanway acknowledged that Haiti had caused them more issues than they had anticipated but added that she was just pleased to have started the campaign with a victory.

“The most important thing is to get the three points,” she said.

“It’s so important to win the first game of the tournament. It’s been a long build-up and we’re just happy to get over the line.

“They caused us problems, they were a threat on the counterattack.

“They were fast, they were physical and they challenged us in ways we didn’t expect.

“It took us a bit of time to get into the game, but once we did, you could see the quality in our team.”