At the King Power Stadium on Sunday evening, England proved they are more than ready to defend their European title with an impressive 7-0 win over Jamaica.
Other teams across Europe have played numerous friendlies in order to prepare for the upcoming tournament while the Lionesses have only played this single game during their training period. To put it into perspective, Jamaica are ranked 40th in the world FIFA rankings compared to England who are ranked 5th.
While the Lionesses welcomed back key figures into the squad such as Georgia Stanway and Lauren James: the Reggae Girlz were noticeably without star players such as striker Bunny Shaw. Although, it was sister centre-back pairing Allyson and Chantelle Swaby who would prove to be a force to be reckoned with for the majority of the match.
With only 3 days to go until the start of the Euros, many speculated this would be Sarina Wiegman’s trial run of her starting XI and impact substitutes before facing France in their opening game of the Euros on Saturday 5th July.
In the first ten minutes, there were chances at both ends as the teams settled into the game. Jess Carter surprisingly came the closest for the home side as she tried her luck from close range. Moments later, a loose ball almost gave Jamaica their first attack of the afternoon but England were quick to regain possession.
Moments later, England had a flurry of chances which finally resulted in the long-awaited goal for the home team. The best of these came from Georgia Stanway but her curling ball flew high over the crossbar. Ella Toone then broke the deadlock moments later as Stanway turned provider, laying off the ball on the edge of the box before Toone curled it with pin-point precision into the top corner for 1-0.
It wasn’t long, however, before the Reggae Girlz found their rhythm and were able to use a low cross from a corner to cut through the English defence to find the equaliser from McKenna’s strike!
Unfortunately for Jamaica, there was a VAR check and it confirmed Hannah Hampton’s view was obstructed in the build up and the goal was disallowed.
This chance, although taken away, should have given the visitors the confidence to keep attacking the home side, however, it only made England more determined to push higher up the pitch. Within ten minutes Lucy Bronze had doubled the home side’s lead after a period of incredibly positive, attacking play from Wiegman’s side as Jamaica noticeably dropped into a tighter defensive block.
Lauren Hemp then showed an incredible athletic display to keep the ball in play in the build up to the second goal, as the ball found its way to the feet of Jess Carter (who with Bronze were both playing more of a wingback role to push up the pitch) she then played a precision ball into the box for Lucy Bronze to simply guide it over the line with her trademark header for 2-0.
England had yet more chances as the half wore on, notably, Hemp’s strike which ricocheted off the post before Ella Toone secured her brace in the fourth minute of added time. The whistle then signalled the half-time break minutes later as England headed down the tunnel satisfied with an overall positive performance.
As the second half began, Jamaica started strong and won an early corner which would ultimately turn out to be their last chance of the game. Unfortunately, this came to nothing and they struggled with injuries throughout the remainder of the half as England grew even more confident, netting another four goals before the final whistle.
Just before the hour mark, it looked for a short while that England would initially struggle to find another goal as deflection after deflection pinballed around the box. Finally, the ball fell to the feet of Georgia Stanway who confidently netted her first goal back after injury for 4-0.
Ten minutes later, Alessia Russo made it five (after she’d struggled to find a way through the Swaby sisters in the first half) before Beth Mead and Aggie Beever-Jones comfortably secured England’s win.
Wiegman’s substitutes were able to make a strong impact in the latter stages of the game and played a part in the final 3 goals.
Firstly, Lauren James was able to chip the ball to Russo who nodded the ball down over the line for 5-0. Then, Niamh Charles picked up a long ball down the right wing before crossing into the box for Beever-Jones to swiftly put it into the back of the net for 6-0. Finally, substitute Chloe Kelly provided the assist for Beth Mead to score in the final moment of the game to make it a very impressive 7 goal win for the Lionesses.
Although a 7-0 win looks impressive on the surface, the Lionesses will have picked out key elements to work on before the Euros start, in particular being tighter on the ball and their clinical finishing.
Throughout the match, there were a few moments where England were sloppy and their loose passes, although didn’t hurt them today, will be punished by the teams they will face over the next few weeks.
Finally, with 33 shots, 17 on target and (only) 7 finding the back of the net, there is still room to improve the Lionesses’ quality of attack in front of goal as against the top sides they definitely won’t have as many chances to change the game.
Although France of course will pose different challenges to this heavily injury-effected Jamaican side; head coach Sarina Wiegman commented in her post-mach interview that she was happy with what she saw and they tried everything they “wanted to see” in preparation for next week.
England will face France in their opening game of the Euros next Saturday (Group D) and have proved that even though this is a very different team to the winning side of 2022, they have more than enough strength and quality in the squad to fight for the title once more.
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