There were more questions to be asked than answers provided in England’s 2-1 victory against South Africa but, to a certain extent, friendlies are when they can afford to be far from their best.
As long as they are ready by 2 July, when Sarina Wiegman’s players begin the defence of their European title at Euro 2025 in Switzerland, there will be few complaints.
However, there is plenty to think about after the Lionesses failed to extend their lead beyond two goals, eventually allowing Christinah Kgatlana to expose a defensive fragility that just will not go away, pulling one back for the visiting team and applying pressure late on.
“We still have more questions, but that was what we said to each other before this camp, we don’t need to have all the answers now,” Wiegman said. “We have two more games [this year] and we’re just trying to get as much information as possible … we need these games to try out different things.”
The manager had promised that “you will see changes” after a far more familiar XI had graced the pitch at Wembley for the 4-3 defeat by Germany on Friday night. There were eight for the visit of South Africa, only Georgia Stanway, Beth Mead and Leah Williamson retaining their places in the starting lineup.
Alex Greenwood started at centre-back alongside Williamson with Millie Bright dropping to the bench, Wiegman testing a less familiar partnership (between those three) and keeping faith in her captain, who had not looked herself against Germany and has had a tumultuous start to the season with Arsenal.
Mary Earps returned to the starting XI as the battle for the No 1 shirt hots up, and the Manchester United centre‑back Maya Le Tissier began at right-back. Further forward, the in-form Grace Clinton and Jess Park began in the middle while Jess Naz was handed her first cap up front.
For South Africa, who endured a 5-0 defeat against Denmark on Friday, there were four changes, among them, Hildah Magaia replaced Nthabiseng Majiya up front and Thubelihle Shamase joined identical twin sister Sphumelele Shamase on the bench.
It took 12 minutes for England to make the breakthrough in front of a fired-up crowd at the home of Coventry City. Mead’s corner cleared as far as Naz, who rolled the ball to Williamson to fire low past Kaylin Swart into the bottom corner.
The captain, making her 50th appearance for the Lionesses, let out a roar that felt laced with catharsis as she was mobbed by her teammates, her cheeks jiggling as Stanway slapped her on either side of her face.
Within two minutes of taking the lead England were in trouble at the back, Esme Morgan was caught out by Noxolo Cesane who poked the ball away from her to Kgatlana, the full‑back snuck a cross into Magaia but Clinton followed her as she attempted to run the ball into the net and somehow managed to combine with Earps to crowd the ball away.
Clinton was sensational, her forward-thinking play causing all sorts of trouble for South Africa, and she would swap defensive heroics for goal-scoring, nodding Le Tissier’s ball from the right down and in to extend the Lionesses’ lead.
It was never going to be as complicated as Germany but, although South Africa are ranked 48 places below England in the Fifa rankings, they continued to cause problems for the hosts and were rewarded for their efforts 10 minutes into the second half. Williamson’s rogue pass was missed by Stanway, who was a little slow to react, allowing Kgatlana to intercept and slot past a furious Earps.
“At some moments we were sloppy and that was not nice,” Wiegman said. “We also put players in different positions so that’s not easy to adapt and to get the right connections, I asked a lot of them. Football is a game of mistakes, you just want to have as few of them as possible. You want to have those mistakes as far away from goal as possible.”
Kgatlana was through again and again towards the end, offside in one attempt, Bronze deflecting a shot and Earps making a save to deny her at another point.
The end was uglier than the start by a long way, but England clung on, just, to secure the win. It is rare that England have the opportunity to play teams from Africa, where women’s football is developing at pace in some areas and lagging behind in others. However, they will not have enjoyed just how many problems the South Africans caused. The search for form continues.
