Here’s Suzanne Wrack’s report from Algeciras.
Grace Clinton, debutant and goalscorer, spoke to ITV:
Definitely a dream debut. What dreams are made of you know, so I’m very happy. I’m just absolutely buzzing.
Sarina told me at the start of the week that she was going to try me. I am open to a challenge, it is nicer to be deeper on the pitch and get on the ball more, that is what I want to do. My parents flew out for the game this morning so I can’t wait to go and see them.
England’s final goal of seven here.
No stoppin' that, @RachelDaly3! 😅 pic.twitter.com/LFl0wn5JP4
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) February 23, 2024
A strong display in Spain for the #Lionesses! 💪 pic.twitter.com/kzFGHdiY75
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) February 23, 2024
Final score: England 7-2 Austria
A useful exercise, a heavy scoreline and some impressive performances with two-goal Beth Mead and Alexandra Russo taking the headlines. Grace Clinton scoring on debut was useful, too. The training camp can continue happily until Italy on Tuesday.
Goal! England 7-2 Austria (Daly, 90+2)
Rachel Daly wasn’t going to let a goal buffet slide by. She beats the offside trap and clouts home. Freed From Desire is played at a more manageable level.
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90 +1 min: Five minutes are added on. More pain for Austria? No, they seem to fancy a goal. Jess Park heads clear and Feiersinger, the sub, zips a shot at Hampton. That’s well saved.
Goal! England 6-2 Austria (Mead, 89)
FREED FROM DESIRE again. Very loud as Lauren James billows down the field, forces a save from Zinsberger and Mead-o taps in.
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Goal! England 5-2 Austria (Kirchberger, 88)
Kirchberger again from a cross and she jumps highest beyond Morgan to knock in. That was a little too easy. That Marbella training camp need some work on crosses.
87 min: Jess Carter comes back to clear behind. Austria have played better with fresher legs.
85 min: Ball comes in from the right and Hampton claims with ease. Safe hands herself. Up ahead, the midfielders are passing the ball around nicely.
84 min: Austria are snuffed out by Lauren James galloping back to sweep up. This has been so easy, in truth. Will Italy be a tougher test?
81 min: Austria have had a shot. Nicole Billa is the name, and it’s saved by Hampton. There’s a couple of corners for Hampton to deal with too but England defend those far better than they did those early corners and the Austrian goal.
80 min: Jess Carter ruled offside – wrongly. No VAR, no fuss allowed.
77 min: Keira Walsh, linchpin, is on. She was missed for those Nations League games in September. She plays for Barcelona, not very close to Algeciras at all. Georgia Stanway has enjoyed playing in that deep role.
75 min: England have combined neat passing with high pressing. Austria have made it rather easy for them but that’s the Wiegman way. Playing it against Spain is the difficult bit.
73 min: Rachel Daly is the latest to get a knock. Austria have been rather rough-house for a sunshine friendly. Daly is made of stern stuff, mind you.
Goal! England 5-1 Austria (Carter, 70)
Carter flicks on a Wubben-Moy header. There’s a glance to see if she’s offside. Nope, and instead we get a very loud blast of Freed From Desire that can probably be heard across the water in Tangiers.
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69 min: Park steps back to break up another failed Austrian move; they’ve barely strung two passes together. Instead, England have another corner.
65 min: Daly is instantly involved, of course. England have plenty of players forward.
62 min: That’s Russo’s final involvement, and that of Clinton, perhaps to face Italy on Tuesday. Two goalscorers come off, and on comes Rachel Daly, doubtless smelling goals, and Jess Park is on, as well. Jess Carter is on, as Niamh Charles departs.
Goal! England 4-1 Austria (Russo, 61)
The high press causes Austria to cough up the ball. It comes to Russo, who smashes home.
Updated
61 min: Russo cropped down as he hold the ball. Looks to take a kick to the heel, but she should be fine to roll on and continue.
60 min: England try to play out the back where Hannah Hampton looks good with the ball at her feet; like Mary Earps, of course. Good to have decent backup.
58 min: Mead is so dangerous when she’s passed the ball on the right. Austria can’t pick her up, and her crosses into the second cause all types of problems.
56 min: Stanway digs out a shot and Zinsberger continues her improved form by tipping over.
54 min: England pushing on and on here. Lauren James then makes a mess of a throw-in. And looks embarrassed to do so.
53 min: Lauren James is caught when chasing down a pass from the right. Austria concede a corner and Le Tissier heads Mead’s ball at Zinsberger, who makes a fine save. The following corner is headed by Wubben-Moy.
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51 min: Clinton continues to put herself about in midfield, really impressive in adding bite to that area of the field. No Keira Walsh, who is on the bench. A neat passing move from Stanway sets off the other central midfielder. Her pass asks Toone to improvise. This time it’s wide.
49 min: Russo spins off Kirchberger and sets off down the wing; and gets legged up in the process.
48 min: The ball goes out wide to Mead but this time she cannot find Toone.
46 min: Back away we go, and on comes Lottie Wubben-Moy for Alex Greenwood, and Lauren James is also on the field, with Lauren Hemp vacating.
Updated
Half-time: England 3-1 Austria
New England, much like the old England. Russo’s goal was well taken, as was the impressive debutant Clinton. Good to have Beth Mead back and scoring. Austria haven’t been great but they have occasionally showed England’s weaknesses at the back, and at set pieces.
45+2 min: Austria breaking up more play now. They seem to play better when two goals behind.
45+1 min: Four minutes are added on. Maybe for the goals, there’s been few stoppages otherwise
45 min: Campbell and Dunst link for an Austrian attack, and now for another corner. This time, Campbell climbs highest – the Austrians getting there first again – but misses.
43 min: Austria trying to press high now. Seems like a case of the horse bolting. They’ve been poor in open play, and only that set piece showed off any of their strengths.
41 min: Mead blazes down the left and Russo is baulked in attempting a Phil Jones low dive. She’ll be OK, it seems.
40 min: An England free-kick and Stanway’s stab is knocked behind. All England here.
39 min: That’s a decent reflection of England’s dominance. Mead had been quiet while retaining her latent threat.
Goal! England 3-1 Austria (Mead, 37)
England are queuing up, their high press means the ball is spinning around the Austrian box. Mead cuts in, left foot, rocket and goal. What a player.
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36 min: Hemp out wide, and trying to send Niamh Charles down the left. Eventually, Hemp zings in a shot and the rebound evades Mead. Zinsberger’s now needing to have a good game to keep the scores down.
34 min: From long distance, Russo shoots at Zinsberger. This time there’s no problem for the keeper.
32 min: England try to hit back, Russo scrabbling in the wet and playing in Toone for a shot that whips wide. Close but we have a game on here. How long for? Let’s see.
Goal! England 2-1 Austria (Kirchberger, 30)
Austria have a corner, and they have a goal. The ball is drilled in and on her 99th cap, Kirchberger heads in, and accompanied. That was poor marking from the Lionesses.
29 min: Ooof, that weather looks grim, just like London today in fact. Clinton continues to put herself about, Puntigam on the end of a hefty challenge. Spectators meanwhile are breaking for shelter in the squall.
26 min: Clinton is giving it everything and battling away in midfield. She’s put herself in the window; she’s only on loan at Spurs, unable to find a space at Manchester United.
24 min: An Austrian attack. Dunst gets to the line, whips a ball in and there’s Greenwood to receive it and set up a counter. Austria clear the danger anxiously.
22 min: So much for a sunshine break; it’s piddling down in Spain. That will only add zip to the England passing.
21 min: Austria haven’t been up to much but it’s the Lionesses as we remember them before their Nations League woes.
Goal! England 2-0 Austria (Clinton, 19)
She doesn’t have to wait long. England play some lovely, intricate passing and Hemp drifts to the back post for Clinton to score on debut. She’s attacked the ball every time it’s gone forward and there’s her reward.
Updated
16 min: Mead and Hemp switch wings, and Grace Clinton, the debutant, takes a swing and smashes the ball off the post. Nearly a true glory night for her. It still could be.
15 min: Charles Antaki gets in touch: “One-eyed club fan’s perspective: Mead, terrific; Russo, superb; Zinsberger; well, Arsenal do have another goalkeeper.”
13 min: Toone on the charge, Russo on the end of it with Mead waiting at the other end. The ball doesn’t make it across. Russo is leading the line well.
10 min: Lauren Hemp on a familiar charge, and she forces a corner. This one is cleared well enough. England lacking Rachel Daly, Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright from the usual set-plays operators.
9 min: Niamh Charles, playing at left-back, gives away a free-kick England must defend, and Hampton, in for Mary Earps, climbs high and claims with some command.
7 min: England look comfortable in spraying the ball around. Austria are familiar foes even for this unfamiliar England lineup.
5 min: Mead is the target of another pass out wide, and she’s showing what the Lionesses missed at the World Cup with her zest.
4 min: That didn’t take long and the Arsenal goalkeeper was culpable. All it took was a ball out wide and Mead to do her usual attacking of the space.
Goal! England 1-0 Austria (Russo, 3)
Beth Mead finds space, zings in a shot and Zinsberger makes a horlicks of it, and Russo, poacher supreme, slots in.
Updated
2 min: It’s so quiet we can hear the chatter of some fans near the boom mics. Think like the people ordering drinks in the Velvet Underground’s Live At Max’s Kansas City as Lou and the gang riff away.
1 min: And away we go in Spain. Let’s see how this much-changed England team get on.
The teams are out in Algericas, and it’s a tad empty, the stadium. Or the sky is; they are not playing at one of Spain’s great citadels here. The anthem is sung not especially loudly but whatever.
Updated
Fran Kirby out, Ella Toone in
Via our roving reporter in Algericas.
Kirby OUT, Toone IN. Kirby being assessed after warm up.
— Suzy Wrack (@SuzyWrack) February 23, 2024
That England starting XI: A debut for midfielder Grace Clinton, while Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton starts; she’s been playing well of late. Alex Greenwood captains the side, with Manchester United’s Maya Le Tissier (no, no relation) her central defensive partner.
Swedish international Magdalena Eriksson joins the team to pen the latest Moving The Goalposts. Sign up to the newsletter. It’s absolutely free.
Now it is time for the Nations League semi-finals. France face Germany and the Netherlands have the unenviable task of taking on Spain. When I think about what makes them so formidable, I’d start with two things: the amount of quality players and that winning culture, which begins with their youth national teams. They’ve won four of the last five Under-19 Euros and been to the final in seven of the last eight Under-17 Euros. In other words, just reaching a tournament is not enough – their attitude is “we’re going to be there until the end”. The same goes at club level with Barcelona.
The Lionesses team is in
Plenty of familiar names, but an unfamiliar lineup.
Your #Lionesses team news! 🤩
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) February 23, 2024
🏴 A debut for Grace Clinton
👩✈️ @AlexGreenwood captains
🧤 @hannahhampton_ starts in goal pic.twitter.com/LHF9Majg1E
England: Hampton, Le Tissier, Charles, Stanway, Morgan, Greenwood, Mead, Clinton, Russo, Kirby, Hemp. Subs: Carter, Keating, Toone, Wubben-Moy, James, Bronze, Walsh, Daly, Park, Earps, Turner, Beeves-Jones.
So starten wir gegen die @Lionesses 🇦🇹🦅
— ÖFB - oefb.at (@oefb1904) February 23, 2024
Livestream 📺 https://t.co/hOwS5b2YB5#GemeinsamÖSTERREICH pic.twitter.com/wC9VQWVW6X
Austria XI: Zinsberger, Schiechtl, Dunst, Zadrazil, Georgieva, Campbell, Kirchberger, Hobinger, Puntigam, Purtscheller, Naschenweng. Subs: Kresche, Pal, D’Angelo, Klein, Pinther, Feiersinger, Billa, Schasching, Hanshaw, Kolb.
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More Suzanne from Marbella.
There’s no tournament so that should be an opportunity to get some rest, but because of the window in June and the window in July how are you going to take some time off?” she said. “After that there is some time off, because in England the WSL starts later [21-22 September], but round one of the Champions League starts in early September, which takes away the summer for those players.
That’s what we need to take care of and we’ve asked Fifa and Uefa to look at that and change that in the future so players can have some rest. It’s great that we have players who love football, but we have to take care of them too, so we have to do something about the calendar.
Beth Mead’s back on the scene, as Suzanne Wrack reports.
Little things that are your bread and butter, it is like riding a bike, you get better eventually, but you do get frustrated about things that you used to do in your sleep. You do notice because it’s stuff that you would do day in and day out.
Preamble
Spanish climes for the Lionesses, and a good view of Morocco, too, with some warm weather training. They’ve been sunning themselves in Marbella, but will play down the coast in another port city, 80 clicks away. After the disappointment of failing to qualify Team GB for the Olympics via the Nations League there’s a sense of renewal about, and regrouping. Sarina Wiegman, for the first time, has to lead her team from a downward curve and the trajectory begins here. This was supposed to be when the Nations League semi-finals were being played by England; instead the calendar is being filled by the Austrians, and Italy on Tuesday.
Kick-off is 7.4pm. Join me.
