Phil Neville was upbeat about England's performance despite his side being beaten 2-1 by Brazil at the Riverside Stadium.
The Lionesses were the better side in the first half but they fell to Debinha’s second-half brace.
Beth England halved the deficit but Neville’s side are now without a win in five matches.
Neville said: “When we went to Norway and Belgium, that was nowhere near the level that this team should be playing at.
“But what I’ve seen [against Brazil]; that’s the level of a top, top team.
“We got punished for two lapses of concentration in the second half. The game should have been dead and buried by then.
“Our football was some of the best I’ve seen us play for a long time.”
England’s last victory was their World Cup quarter final success over Norway.
They have since been beaten by USA, Sweden, Norway and now Brazil, in addition to a 3-3 draw with Belgium.
Neville’s charges have a chance to make amends when they take on Portugal in Setubal on Tuesday night – and the head coach believes his side just need to ride this current rough patch.
He said: “We’re in that period where things aren’t going for us that maybe were going for us 12 months ago.
“We’ve just got to stick together and believe what we’re doing is right.
“I can look my players in the eye and they can look each other in the eye and say that they played a really good game of football today.
“We didn’t deserve to lose the game, that’s for sure.”
Over 60,000 tickets have already been sold for England’s next home match, against Germany at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 9 November.
