England made a comeback after a 2-1 loss to Brazil in an international friendly, bouncing back to deliver a commanding 3-0 victory over Australia in Derby, a night that mixed dominance and delight with one heartbreaking injury.
Before the game kicked off, Grace Clinton and Lauren Hemp emerged pitch-side carrying the UEFA Women’s Euros 2025 trophy, parading it proudly in front of the crowd as both players recovered from injury.
The match did not disappoint, coming in fast and full of confidence.
Alessia Russo’s movement caused constant problems, while Lucy Bronze scored her 142nd Cap, a goal and an assist on her 34th birthday.
In the 18th minute, Alanna Kennedy was sent off with a straight red card for bringing down Alessia Russo outside the box and preventing a goalscoring opportunity. Kennedy did not appear to be opposed to the decision made. Ian Wright said: “You don’t need to pull her back, you’ve got players recovering from both sides. If she scores, fine, but playing with ten is far worse.”
In the 20th minute, after already having a goal disallowed due to her being offside, Aggie Beever-Jones opened the scoreboard.
Beever-Jones struck the free kick at the wall, but Bronze gathered the rebound and laid it back to the Chelsea forward, who drilled it low into the corner.
This proved you can play both Russo and Beever-Jones with the latter not getting as many starts as she should. This is days after winning England's 2024/25 all time goalscorer. She has now been directly involved in seven goals in her last eight England games (six goals one assist).
From the 28th minute Australia were chasing shadows as England continued to press and suffocate the Aussies and Sam Kerr was left completely isolated. That was the last time they made a real threat on goal which was comfortably dealt with by Hannah Hampton who came into this game after missing the game against Brazil due to a minor elbow injury.
It went from bad to worse for the visitors just five minutes from extra time Ella Toone threaded a perfect cutback across the box for bronze to put it in the bottom corner. England were up by too and Bronze celebrated her 21st England goal while the crowd started to sing “Happy Birthday”.
The drama continued into the second half Sarina Wiegman, England manager, was about to sub off Beever-Jones who was in some discomfort but the 19-year-old Euro super star Michelle Agyemang stopped. She went down clutching her knee and in a significant amount of pain her arm over her face. She was eventually put on a stretcher and removed from the pitch with the crowd coming together in a round of applause.
There is major concern that it could be an ACL. There have been 15 ACL injuries in Women's football in the last three months.
Sarina Wiegman afterwards: “That was an awful moment. It doesn’t look good. We’ll assess her, but I’m not very positive. You never want to see a young player in that kind of pain.”
Chloe Kelly came on for Agyemang instead of for Beever-Jones which is who she was originally being subbed on for. Kelly was England's sixth sub therefore when Beever-Jones went on the floor in pain after significant strapping to her leg and had to be subbed off.
This meant both sides were down to ten players as it was the 80th minute England were up 2-0 and it was an international friendly the England manager did not think it was warranted to keep the Chelsea forward on the pitch anymore and cause a bigger injury.
Aggie Beever-Jones was also seen with ice around her thigh but confirmed to be a precautionary withdrawal. It was later confirmed by Beever-Jones herself that she is ok and while she did not want to come off they looked at the bigger picture and it was friendly.
“Luckily they were down to ten men so I didn’t have too big of an impact.
“I’ll be OK. Just wrap up and get some recovery in.”
The reason another player has not been brought on as the FIFA’s “A” international friendly regulations is unlike club friendlies which often allow unlimited changes by official senior internationals restricts teams to six to preserve the game’s rhythm and tactical integrity.
When the game was over Katrina Gorry caught a late foul against Missy Bo Kearns and after a VAR check, a penalty was awarded and Georgia Stanway dispatched it with her usual calmness in the 90+6 minute making it 3-0 for the home side.
There were two debutants for England Lucia Kendall (when Lucy Bronze gave her the player of the match award and said great name as Bronzes real name is Lucia) She started for England and was composed, bright, eager for the ball.
Another debutant was Taylor Hinds who already played one international friendly for Jamaica. She was dependable and calm on the left and offered width and defensive stability though she could have pushed more forwards.
Ian Wright said: “Lucia’s constantly showing, even in her own half. She’s grasped it; she's not playing within herself.”
Wiegman said: “They both showed real personality. It’s great to see our young players step in with confidence.”
This game was crucial for Australia in the run over for the Asian Cup early next year especially as they have a new manager who joined in June this year.
This performance will be hard for them to judge the players performance given they went down to ten players.
It was a tough evening for the Matildas. They never truly recovered from Kennedy’s red card, and their attempts to play out from the back were repeatedly punished by England’s press.
Kerr was visibly frustrated, starved of service, and forced deep to get on the ball. Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley battled hard down the left, but the midfield was overrun.
Joe Montemurro tillies manager post-match: “We gifted them goals. England’s intensity was outstanding. But we’ll take lessons from this. These are the tests you want before a major tournament.”
STATS & FACTS
- England have now scored in 16 consecutive matches – the longest streak in their history.
- Lucy Bronze has scored and assisted in three separate games in 2025 – the most of any Lioness.
- Beever-Jones: 7 goals in 13 appearances for England since July 2024.
- England’s record vs Australia: 2 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss.
- This was Pride Park’s first senior women’s international and it was a sell out.
- Mackenzie Arnold (AUS GK) had more touches (9) than Sam Kerr (8) in the opening 15 minutes.
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