Having learned to move faster and stay switched on against South Korea, while exuding creativity over Italy, England cap off the round-robin Arnold Clark Cup with familiar rivals Belgium, ranked 20th by FIFA.
Belgian footballers that feature in England’s top flight are Amber Tysiak at West Ham, Justine Vanhaevermaet, who plays as a central-midfielder for Reading, and Yana Daniels, who joined Liverpool in 2021 after a stint with Bristol City on the right flank but is yet to find the net for her club this league campaign.
Last time out:
Sarina Wiegman’s side last faced Belgium in June in the run-up to the home Euros. England won 3-0 when Chloe Kelly and Rachel Daly found the back of the net. Goalkeeper Nicky Evrard put Leah Williamson’s effort in the back of the net as an own-goal in the dying minutes of the game after dealing with 25 shots on goal from the Lionesses' ferocious attack.
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The visitors looked fatigued on the day, but goalkeeper Everard was on fire, denying England’s considerable amount of attempts on goal. Belgium became vulnerable when committing their full-backs to support the attack only to become exposed and exploited at the back on the counter - especially through Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly out wide applying pressure high up the pitch.
Form:
The Red Flames are capable of goals but unorganised defensively. While they equalised against France before succumbing to a 2-1 loss at the Euros they finished group D runners-up after beating Italy 1-0 and drawing 1-1 with Iceland. They were eventually knocked out after losing 1-0 to Sweden in the quarter-finals fighting for the chance to meet England in the semis.
Post-Euros, the Red Flames lost 1-0 to Norway in the Women's World Cup group stages, and despite a 7-0 win over Armenia, a 2-1 defeat to Portugal saw Belgium out of contention for a spot at the Women's World Cup this summer. They have attempted to qualify for each World Cup since the women’s tournament was established in 1991, but have yet to succeed in that aim.
For that, they could come into this tournament with something to prove, or on the flip side, with a total restructure experiment, could we see a completely different Belgian side?
The threat:
Another 4-3-3 formation for Lionesses head coach Sarina Wiegman to break down but a different challenge to the 4-4-1-1 from their previous meeting. However, head coach Ives Serneels has been in charge since 2011, and has overseen more than 120 matches with the Red Flames - he knows this Belgian team inside-out - so it will not be an easy ride for England.
A considerable threat to the Lionesses is striker Tessa Wullaert. Domestically for Fortuna Sittard, she has scored 11 goals in 14 games, a similar figure to Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw and Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly.
Wullaert is fast and with good feet, the 29-year-old has outstanding career stats and is the all-time top scorer for Belgium with 65 goals in 107 appearances and won the Golden Boot in Belgium in 2016, 2018 and 2019 and scored the most goals in the world Cup Qualifying rounds with 16 goals.
She led the attack as the nine against England last time out, yet has never scored against the Lionesses.
Evrard also had a fantastic Euros tournament as the goalkeeper with the second-most saves (21), two of which were from penalties (the only goalkeeper to do so in the tournament). She trailed the leader Van Domselaar of the Netherlands by two saves, although Evrard conceded one less goal (3).
In comparison, England's Mary Earps was ranked sixth having made only 13 saves, although she conceded the least in the tournament with only two goals.
Potential England starting XI:
Potential subs: Emily Ramsey for Earps. Chloe Kelly for Hemp/James. Katie Zelem for Coombs/Walsh for player rotation and exposure.
Should Daly need to be pushed up to get a goal, England could opt for a back three so could test that out here vs Belgium. Similar playing styles of Coombs and Stanway mean they could swap over to test the partnerships and see what Coombs can deliver on the international stage after being left out for so long.
Lauren James has been a huge threat domestically and seeing what potential she could bring should England be desperate in trying to secure a win, it would be interesting to see what she could do alongside Daly, Toone and Hemp.
Her defensive play needs work but Coombs is a workhorse and will be able to cover James should she push too high. Equally, the overlaps with Bronze and James could be exciting.
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