Football: Women counting down to football World Cup

Annalie Longo gave the Football Ferns the lead against Denmark. Photo / Getty Images

The Football Ferns had two aims before their international friendly with Denmark yesterday: one was to win and the other was to show improvements as they work towards the World Cup in June.

Despite a last-minute Danish equaliser, Ferns coach Tony Readings left the bitterly cold Spice Hotel Football Ground in Turkey a content man.

"If you look at the last two or three minutes we're obviously not happy with that," he said.

"But for the majority of the game it was probably one of the best performances we've had for a while. We looked fresh, we kept the ball, we defended well and counter-attacked well and our set plays were good."

Midfielder Annalie Longo chipped the Danish goalkeeper late in the first half to give the Ferns a halftime lead, before Denmark, ranked 16th in the world, levelled in the 89th minute.

The Ferns, ranked 18th, have now gained two draws from their last four games against higher-ranked opposition (France, Norway), but Readings said being competitive was no longer enough and they needed to be able to put games to bed against the top sides.

"We believe we should be a little higher up those rankings with the performances we've been putting in over the last two years."

Longo said the result would have been different if the Ferns had been more clinical in front of goal.

"We've got a few key fundamental things we want to keep working on and now we know our [World Cup] draw we're trying to use these opponents as preparation for those games."

The final match of the series is on January 15 at 9pm (NZT).