Bronze and Hemp head England to winning start against Scotland
The bald statistics show that England won again with goals from Lucy Bronze and Lauren Hemp seeing off their near neighbours but Sarina Wiegman will be more concerned with the subtext.
The Lionesses’ manager looked on inscrutably as her team failed to convince and Scotland’s Kirsty Hanson proved the game’s outstanding individual.
Quite apart from scoring her team’s consolation goal, the Aston Villa forward succeeded in unnerving Bronze to the point where the customarily swashbuckling right wing back at times looked uncharacteristically terrified of advancing. On another night Hanson and company would have been rewarded with at least a draw.
It all began on a sad note with the Stadium of Light observing a minute’s silence in memory of Maddy Cusack, the Sheffield United player who died suddenly this week, aged 27.
Barely a month ago Cusack had sat in front of her television and cheered England on at the World Cup in Australia and now the losing finalists were back in action competing in the inaugural women’s Nations League.
Given that one of the prizes available for succeeding in a fiendishly complicated competition, which represents a stepping stone towards qualification for Euro 2025 is a place in next summer’s Paris Olympics, certain Scotland players possibly harboured a certain conflict of interest.
Wiegman has been lined up to coach a potential Team GB so this represented an ideal opportunity for England’s manager to scout potential squad contenders from north of the border.
Unlike the Lionesses, Scotland did not qualify for this summer’s World Cup but Pedro Martínez Losa’s side arrived on a six-game unbeaten run. That sequence swiftly seemed under threat as they started deceptively slowly, struggling to touch the ball, let alone escape their own half.
Wiegman’s players wore wristbands emblazoned with the message Se Acabo – “It’s over” – in solidarity with their World Cup winning Spain counterparts’ fight against misogyny but they were briefly battling among themselves as Scotland very nearly scored with their first counterattack.
Caroline Weir would be a strong candidate for any Team GB side and her rising shot forced Mary Earps into a fabulous save as the game morphed from something initially resembling a one paced pre-season friendly to a somewhat higher tempo contest.
Rachel Daly, deployed at centre forward by Wiegman in Alessia Russo’s absence, swiftly directed a powerful header past Lee Gibson after meeting Katie Zelem’s corner only to see it chalked off after an offside Chloe Kelly was deemed to have interfered with play.
This reprieve served to galvanise Scotland and Kirsty Hanson’s glorious pass duly bisected England’s backline. Millie Bright and co certainly looked mighty relieved that a stretching Martha Thomas was literally inches away from connecting with that stellar delivery.
Had VAR been operational Scotland would almost certainly have been awarded a penalty when Bright subsequently felled Weir in the area and Martínez Losa’s players were still complaining about that when Zelem slung a superlative cross into the box. Bronze, having timed her curving run to perfection, was in the right place at the right time to head beyond Gibson.
This time the goal stood, although replays suggested Bronze could possibly have been offside. No matter; as a former Sunderland player there could have been no more popular scorer than the Barcelona right-back.
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The celebrations had barely faded before another cross and another scoring header – from Daly and Lauren Hemp respectively this time –doubled England’s advantage
Similarly Hemp’s name was still up in lights when Scotland finally, and deservedly, answered back with the final kick of the first half when a combination of an off balance Alex Greenwood’s defensive error and Claire Emslie’s pass permitted Hanson’s shot to beat Earps.
With the WSL not kicking off until next Sunday it was perhaps no surprise England’s back three looked a little ring rusty against a Scotland XI evidently keen to atone for their narrow defeat they suffered in their last match against the Lionesses.
That 2-1 defeat in Nice during the group stage of France 2019 featured a very different England lineup under Phil Neville’s charge but contained some uncanny parallels. Foremost among them were a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal and some unnecessary concentration lapses.
Indeed Scotland might have equalised when the excellent Hanson crossed for Thomas whose header brought the best out in Earps.
Attempting to change the narrative Wiegman moved Lauren James forward to join Hemp in attack with Daly reverting to left wing back.
England, possibly missing the injured Keira Walsh, were being outmanoeuvred in midfield and seemed to lack the energy to resist Scotland’s high, hard second-half press. By now Hanson had much the better of Bronze and was unlucky to hit the bar.
There was still time for James to have a goal disallowed for an arguably extremely harsh offside but England will need to up their game appreciably against Wiegman’s native Netherlands in Utrecht on Tuesday.