Mark Sampson vows to work out why England Women were beaten by France

England Women boss Mark Sampson has vowed to figure out why his team surrendered a winning position against France in Philadelphia.Jordan Nobbs fired the Lionesses ahead just after the half-hour mark and they remained in front until the 80th minute, but two late France goals gave Les Bleues a 2-1 win in the SheBelieves Cup opener.England have not beaten France since 1974, and after seeing a golden opportunity to end that barren run slide by on Wednesday night, Sampson admitted the defeat had been painful."The players' effort was excellent, but I will sit down with my coaching staff and work out where we went wrong in the second half," Sampson said."I'm disappointed and frustrated. We're still on a journey. We've got to find a way to win these games."He added, on thefa.com: "I need to watch the game back but we struggled in the second half. "I tried to make a change to address that but it wasn't the right change. I hold my hands up."Sampson made four substitutions after the break, and England were stung in the fifth minute of stoppage time by Wendie Renard's headed winner.The England head coach added: "We could have scored three or four in the first half but a team like France are always going to come back at you."England play world champions the United States in their second match of the round-robin tournament in New Jersey on Saturday.

Source: PA