After suffering defeat in France on Friday evening, England Lionesses welcome Canada Women to BET365 Stadium in Stoke for an international friendly.
This clash will represent one final chance for players of both teams to stake their claim for a spot in their Olympics squad, ahead of both managers finalising their selections in coming weeks.
Team News
Lucy Bronze is England’s only injury doubt after an unspecified injury kept her out of Friday’s loss in France.
Manager, Hege Riise however will rotate the starting eleven to give players like Sandy Mclver, Esme Morgan, Georgia Stanway and Ella Toone some game time.
Canada could be without Christine Sinclair after the striker suffered a foot injury in Friday’s 3-0 win over Wales in Cardiff.
Head Coach, Bev Priestman could meanwhile opt to rotate her squad and given fringe players a chance to impress ahead of this summer’s Olympics.
Stat Attack
- England have won three of their last five meetings against Canada in all competitions (W3, L2), although both defeats came in their last two friendly meetings.
- Canada have avoided a draw in each of their two previous trips to England this century (W1, L1).
- Ellen White has scored four goals in her last two friendly appearances for England on home soil.
- Christine Sinclair has scored on her last two appearances for Canada against England in all competitions.
Prediction
Having not faced top tier competition for over 12 months, England will be fairly disappointed with their loss in France because they looked great when pushing forward but lacked clinical finishing which is crucial in these type of matches.
Riise however will be concerned by their defensive play because they initially struggled with their defensive shape when France pressed aggressively, which wasn’t the ideal start nor was getting hit on the counter-attack twice after creating chances up front.
Canada however will pose the same questions if they play like they did in Friday’s mauling of Wales, as they looked confident with varied creative play to punish spacing errors in defence with strong pressing which will surely be a real worry for Riise and England.
On that note, I feel like England need to bring their top game here because if they are defensively careless like they were against France, Canada should comfortably win this otherwise I wouldn’t be surprised if the Lionesses show enough improvement to edge this contest.
Prediction: England 2-1 Canada
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