LEICESTER– England’s Lionesses delivered a commanding performance against a depleted Jamaica side, cruising to a 7-0 victory at the King Power Stadium in a one-sided friendly in England on Sunday.
With Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw and regular goalkeeper Drew Spence absent, Jamaica struggled to threaten England, which was barely tested throughout the match.
The hosts took control early, racing to a 3-0 lead by halftime thanks to a brace from Ella Toone and a headed goal by Lucy Bronze.
Jamaica briefly thought they had pulled one back when Kayla McKenna found the net, but the effort was disallowed after VAR ruled that Kiki van Zanten was obstructing goalkeeper Hannah Hampton from an offside position.
The second half saw England extend their dominance, with Georgia Stanway firing in a powerful strike to make it 4-0. Lauren James, making her first appearance since April after recovering from injury, came off the bench to set up Alessia Russo for the fifth.
Substitute Aggie Beever-Jones continued her fine form with a clever flick past goalkeeper Liya Brooks for the sixth, before Beth Mead rounded off the scoring in stoppage time to complete the emphatic victory.
Despite the heavy defeat, head coach Hubert Busby says he was pleased with some aspects of his young charges’ efforts.
“Overall, I think, outside of the result, there are some positives to take away. Another valuable lesson for the players coming through. I think there are still areas to work on, especially our defensive mindset, as it pertains to second balls. That’s one of the things that we discussed in our box. We talked about the ability for us to win contact and win the second balls.”
“I think we did a good job winning the first balls, but not a great job winning the second ones. And against, you know, a top-four-ranked team in the world, you get punished for those things.”
England 7 (E. Toone 10th, 45+4), L Bronze 32nd, G Stanway 59th, A Russo 71st, A Beever-Jones 85th, B Mead 90’+6) vs Jamaica 0
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