England 2 – 1 USWNT: Hemp’s No 9 audition, Sophia Smith and players stand together

The European champions defeated the world champions at Wembley on Friday night, with England beating USA 2-1 in front of 76,893 supporters. 

Lauren Hemp, playing in an unfamiliar centre-forward role for England, opened the scoring with a simple tap-in, before Georgia Stanway was caught in possession as England attempted to play out from the back, and Sophia Smith fired home the equaliser.

But Stanway atoned for her error with the winner from the penalty spot after VAR adjudged Hailie Mace to have fouled Lucy Bronze. VAR played a major part in the remainder of the game, too, disallowing a second USA equaliser for offside, then overturning a USA penalty that had been awarded for handball.

Charlotte Harpur, Steph Yang, Meg Linehan and Michael Cox discuss the game’s major talking points.

The auditions begin for England’s new No 9

The major question for England was who would start up front, with Ellen White retired, Alessia Russo out injured, Bethany England dropped from the squad, and Rachel Daly continuing at left-back. It was predictable that Wiegman would start Lauren Hemp, Beth Mead and Chloe Kelly, but any of the three could have been used through the middle. As Wiegman acknowledged in a pre-match interview, all of the three had experience in that role.

It was Hemp who was handed the No 9 shirt, and Hemp who started up front. And perhaps that was a little ominous for her. We know Wiegman likes to play as settled an XI as possible, we know that Kelly was knocking on the door of the first XI, and we know that Mead’s England form makes her undroppable. And therefore it’s possible that Weigman played this way because she intends to use Kelly on the left. When Russo returns, perhaps Hemp might make way.

But this was a positive performance. From an early stage, it was clear she understood the pressing requirements in that position, sprinting laterally to cut off passing angles.