New Women's football thread (inc World Cup) 2023-26

[Durhamfootman]

Blimey, England played well tonight, but China were awful.... awful! I don't imagine this was quite what England expected when they booked a friendly against a top 20 side.

England were too quick and too strong, so when China played a high defensive line with 5 at the back, England just played the ball over the top, or fired the ball through, beating the defenders to most balls and muscling them off the others. Add into the mix a keeper who was utterly chaotic and 8-0 summed the game up pretty well. England started fast, which will have been the aim, but they were helped enormously by a China side that were far too passive in the first half. 5-0 the HT score. China brought on a sub who livened things up for them a bit in the second half, but not enough to change the course of the game. This is a side that only lost 3-0 to USA earlier this year. They can't have played this poorly in that game

Hat trick for Stanway, 2 in 2 mins for Mead and goals for Hemp, Russo and Toone from a shocking lapse by the goalie. Russo played well, ran into spaces behind and cut the ball into the box numerous times and not once did an England player get on the end of it. Something to work on, because she put the ball into the same dangerous area time after time. There could have been another 3 goals there for the team had the others worked it out

Ghana next on Tuesday. It wouldn't surprise me if they put on a much better show than this China side despite being 40 or 50 places behind them in the rankings

[Durhamfootman]

Ghana asked a few more questions of England than China did, despite being ranked 67 in the world. I thought they did pretty well, considering the gulf in quality. England made 7 changes to their starting line up. Wubben Moy got a full game tonight and looked assured and competent. Hinds looks really good at LB, Kendall did well and scored the opener. Park looked a bit lost at times, Moorhouse had a second game in goal with not much to do, but what she did, she did pretty well. Kelly came off with a knock early on. AB-J squandered a couple of gilt edged chances and Kearns did okay without doing anything startling.

Ghana worked their socks off and hassled and harried England all over the pitch barring the final third. They defended in numbers and gave England no time on the ball, but England made it easier for them by not being particularly clinical in front of goal. England hit the bar 3 times, the keeper made some really decent saves and defenders got their bodies in the way regularly. The two England goals came from Ghana mistakes.... a poor touch in the box that rolled out to Kendall to poke home and a late inadvertent handball that deflected a Russo header onto the post, but which did stop an otherwise certain goal, with Russo converting the penalty

Plenty of the squad have had opportunities over the last 2 sets of friendlies and in general most have done well, so I imagine Sarina will be pretty pleased at the end of a very good year for England football

[Durhamfootman]

fortuitous win for Newcastle away to Portsmouth. In a dominant first half which led to a goal for Nobbs, they then squandered a host of really good chances, as they so often do. Portsmouth rallied in the second half and the game started to slip away a bit for Newcastle, not unlike the men, if truth be told. After getting caught out by a long ball over the top, where the Newcastle keeper got lucky thanks to the forward staying on her feet to slot home, rather than going down for the pen and a possible red card, Newcastle were handed the win thanks to an own goal chipped over the keeper into the net in trying to deal with an excellent long range cross to Nobbs closing in on the box.

Newcastle are quite well placed in the league going into the winter break, sitting 4th in the table on goal difference, 3 pts behind Birmingham in second

They need to be much more ruthless in front of goal (also like the men)

A comeback win for Sunderland at home against newly promoted Ipswich lifts them away from the relegation zone, where they are replaced by Durham who got a 3-0 kicking away to Birmingham

[Durhamfootman]

Delphine Cascarino has signed for London City. That Michelle Kang woman doesn't muck about. Add her to Asllani, van der Donk, Geyoro, Linari, Sangare and Kumagai who are all full internationals. Loads of ambition and nowhere near the restrictions to be found in the men's game

the aim is Champs Lge football. Not sure how that sits with Lyonnes also being owned by Kang

[Durhamfootman]

Newcastle are quite well placed in the league going into the winter break, sitting 4th in the table on goal difference, 3 pts behind Birmingham in second

They need to be much more ruthless in front of goal (also like the men)

weren't!

2-1 defeat to top of the table Charlton despite having over 70% possession and 10 shots. Charlton, for their part, converted their 29.3% possession into 19 touches in the box, 8 shots, 4 on target and 2 goals

Sunderland scraped a creditable 1-0 win over Southampton, whilst Durham got a 4-0 thrashing off Palace

[Durhamfootman]

Lionesses are in Turkey, dodging Iranian drones along with those in the mostly empty stadium, for their WC qualifier against Ukraine

England have dominated possession and after a goal less first half the floodgates seem to have opened

Ukraine did catch England asleep in their only attack of the game, though.

4-1 England atm, with 15 mins left

been a dull game, from what I can tell

[Durhamfootman]

6-1 in the end

2 goals each for Russo, then Stanway, then Park

[Durhamfootman]

the 6 goals were important last night

Only the top side in the group is guaranteed to go through, so if England and Spain trade home wins, then the group could boil down to goal difference

[andy]

A total of 275 people were at that game last night....

[Durhamfootman]

Can't really blame them, with everything that's going on in that part of the world

[Durhamfootman]

comfortable 2-0 win over Iceland today. I missed the game, because I hadn't realised it was on so early, so I've had to rely on the highlights.

England completely dominated the game, Iceland choosing to park the bus, but still peppered the goal, squandered umpteen chances, hit the woodwork a couple of times and watched the goalie make a string of saves. Could have been a bigger margin really.

Good to see James back. She was lively but profligate. Park was shifted to the centre and seemed less effective than when she played wide right the other night. Bronze was great, as usual, scoring the first and setting up the second. Stanway's goal was very well taken

Spain beat Ukraine 3-1, which I have feeling might have been the scoreline against Iceland too, so England should be top of the group ahead of their meeting with Spain next month

[GarlicJam]

Women's Asia Cup quarter final time. Australia beat the PRK last night, 2-1, in a game that the North Koreans dominated, but just could not score.

Aus had way less of the ball (38%), had just 2 shots on goal to PRK's 10, 0 corners to their 9 - but the Aus keeper had 9 saves to their 0. An unlikely victory, but a victory nonetheless. They will play either China or Taipei in the semi.

This win qualifies them for the world cup, and PRK now have to go through qualifying, so a doubly good win.

[Durhamfootman]

Chelsea beat Man U 2-0 in the league cup final

What struck me was how defensively disciplined Lucy Bronze was. I only saw the second half, but I can’t remember her getting further forward than about 30 yards. Very different from the way she plays for England. She defended very well as it happens

[Durhamfootman]

While the Newcastle men were getting a lesson at the hands of Barcelona, the women were quietly beating Birmingham in WSL2. It was a good win over the second placed side and puts the Lasses within two points of the automatic promotion spots. Just a pity that they threw away two points at the weekend against strugglers Sheff Utd

[GarlicJam]

They will play either China or Taipei in the semi.

It was China they played, and Aus also beat them - now to play red hot favourites for the tournament, Japan, in the final Saturday night.