England’s confidence is growing but more injury issues threaten to overshadow
England take on Belgium again tomorrow in the UEFA Women’s Nations League and will be hoping to repeat the result from Friday’s encounter.
Last Friday at Ashton Gate in Bristol, England took on Belgium and managed an impressive display to go with an impressive 5-0 win, where they dominated the match and did something that we haven’t seen them do too much for a while now and that’s really put a team away and showcase some confidence about their football and the way they want to play.
In terms of a performance that you want to pull off right when a major tournament is on its way, this certainly managed to achieve that to a good standard despite the opposition and how they played. The Lionesses played like a team, almost trying to make a statement of intent, and 23,202 people in that stadium on Friday made their support known in response to the players’ performances.
If the win against Spain was a well-played out, disciplined, ground-out victory over a team that we are expecting to be one of the favourites alongside England in July at the Euros, then this win over Belgium was more controlled, more clinical and a sign of what they really are capable of. In Sarina Wiegman’s words, “We made football look a little bit simple.”
Momentum is building now with the Euros getting ever closer, but it should have course still be made clear that it isn’t something to get carried away with. It was a great victory on Friday and many players impressed whether they started the game or not. However, there are still some questions that are left to be answered and some of that is down to the squad itself as well following the news of injury withdrawals and who are the right options to play in these games because of the absence of certain names, but perhaps tomorrow’s game could give some evidence as to how solutions could be found.
Who did impress the most?
Let’s be honest, there were a couple of players you could pick out from Friday’s match who stood out, but the whole team played their part. From Hannah Hampton looking solid in goal even if she didn’t have to do too much, to the solid experienced backline display with Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright getting on the scoresheet and impressing as well as the other defenders Leah Williamson and Niamh Charles.
Chelsea right-back Bronze though deserves a shout-out for how well she performed in this match and on her 130th appearance for the Lionesses too, where her and Beth Mead had a lot of success on that right side of the pitch and she more than deserved the goal as she flicked a header into the net. She had an involvement in the second scored by her Chelsea teammate as well when she headed the ball from the corner for Bright to poke home at the back post past Nicky Evrard.
Keeping the praise on Chelsea players though as it was their Lionesses’ talents who were scoring some of the other goals and it was second-half sub Aggie Beever-Jones who took this appearance in the second 45 to showcase why she is deserving of a few more regular minutes in the team as well and scoring her first goal in the senior England set up certainly put her firmly in Sarina Wiegman’s mind with the forward options at her disposal.
Jess Park making it 4-0 for a goal in back-to-back games after she got what was the only one against Spain just made her look good once again as she also scored from off the bench.
One of the stories though was Keira Walsh as well finally getting her first Lionesses goal, which admittedly when it was first mentioned on commentary that she hadn’t scored a senior goal for England was a tiny bit surprising but also not so much when you do think about in a way. Either way, what a moment it was when she received the ball outside the area in the 88th minute and she just struck the ball hard and with the help of a deflection, she had her first goal for her country.
Walsh is one of the absolute nailed-on starters for England this summer at the Euros there isn’t any doubting that. But speaking on the midfield where most of the questions lie right now, we were seeing Grace Clinton operate more or less next to Keira Walsh and then Ella Toone was pushed further up as the ‘number 10’, but it was one of the things in the match where you could see a bit of a disconnect when it came how everything worked between the midfielders.
Getting the balance right in this midfield is going to be so important for England as I and many people have stated many times. The fine details will have to be ironed out when the tournament comes around and maybe that will be solved by a returning Georgia Stanway or via another plan that comes to fruition, otherwise the risk England will have to deal with could end up being one to exploit.
The injury list grows
Before kick-off last week, Chloe Kelly left the England camp because of a foot injury suffered in training which was a shame for her as you could have seen her starting on Friday considering her form in the lead-up to it with Arsenal. Then once the game concluded on Friday, more news would come out over the weekend of more injury troubles within the squad.
Lauren James was the next player to withdraw and she returns to Chelsea after picking up a hamstring injury which appeared to be the reason why she went off at half-time against Belgium. Tottenham’s Jessica Naz is in the squad now in her place. This is not good news for Chelsea because of what the injury is and the fact it ain’t one that usually has a quick recovery either. Horrible timing given some important fixtures on the horizon for them.
The final withdrawal from the camp is Alessia Russo, who was sporting an ice pack on her ankle when the camera panned to her sitting on the bench near full-time of Friday’s match. She had been on the receiving end of a late challenge on her ankle and it seems it is bad enough for her to return to Arsenal and it is a fellow Arsenal player (technically) who replaces her in the squad as Michelle Agyemang receives her first call up to the senior side having recently played with the U19s helping them qualify for their European Championships at that age level.
The forward has had some good displays while on loan at Brighton from Arsenal this season in the WSL and her displays at the youth levels for England have earned her this first senior call-up. Will be interesting to see if there is a chance of any minutes tomorrow.
It is a little worrying to see the injury list grow for the Lionesses and the pressure for players to just survive the next few months playing before the major tournament starts is a lot to feel when you want to be a part of that. As we all know, this time of the season is always one where the intensity can ramp up due to some of the big matches happening and also the schedules becoming more hectic as well.
From an England standpoint right now seeing a team without Russo, James, Hemp, Greenwood, Stanway and Kelly makes for horrible reading when you look at it. They are six players that you would firmly believe could be starters in that opening game against France on July 5th.
This international break as a whole though has seen quite a few players withdraw from their camps because of injury. Daphne Van Domselaar with the Netherlands, Wendie Renard with France, Hayley Raso and Ellie Carpenter are just two of many Australian players to withdraw, plus Maika Hamano and Mayra Ramirez potentially adding to Chelsea’s issues too. There are definitely more as well that have happened and it all just doesn’t make for the best of reading at all.
Will it be more of the same tomorrow?
The last thing though I’ll add is to ask the question of whether tomorrow’s match against Belgium could potentially be more of the same for the Lionesses. There are sure to be changes because of the latest injuries to players, although what this does now is open up an opportunity to one or two.
The subs from Friday’s match may now get a chance from the start so maybe there is a claim for Aggie Beever-Jones to make her first senior start out on that left side where she came on in the last game. You could also argue she can start up front with Russo out, but that position might go to Nikita Parris for what would be a rare start for her and the first she will have managed for a long time as well.
Eyes will be on the midfield again and whether Sarina Wiegman sticks with the same three from Friday of Walsh, Clinton and Toone or decides to try something different, perhaps Jess Park starts tomorrow in Leuven or maybe even someone else comes in for an appearance.
You wouldn’t expect to see a wide range of changes heading into this one and that’s more down to wanting to keep the momentum going even further and keep the confidence growing in this team.
