England Women manager, Sarina Wiegman has praised Lucia Kendall for a successful senior debut in a 3-0 friendly victory against Australia.
Kendall was one of two debutants in the Lionesses’ starting line-up alongside defender – Taylor Hinds, as goals from Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway defeated the ten-women Aussies after Alanna Kennedy’s red card for a foul on Alessia Russo.
The 21-year-old midfielder however shone with a 100% passing accuracy in the final third and five shots and chances created apiece in a strong debut display, having not previously been called up to the senior squad prior to this month’s international window.
“I think she did really well,” reflected Wiegman who was left with a strong impression of Kendall. “She impressed me and my staff from the beginning of the season with Aston Villa and she did really well in the training sessions.
“She picks positions up well and she reads the game really well. It just comes with her and she keeps things really simple, but that’s not always easy.
“She has a great touch too so I that’s why I thought she deserved the start today.
“She’s very young, very powerful and she opens up spaces for other people. She scans well and wins duels. I’m positive and happy for her.”
Wiegman added that she was pleased with how the team dominated the game and produced a strong reaction to Kennedy’s dismissal, with continued high intensity and aggressive pace but felt that there is room for improvement in their end product.
“Early in the game, a player was sent off for them so we were against ten. We had a lesson of how to play against ten the other day so we kept the pace up.
“We were okay on the ball but we can do better in the final third, be better on the ball and make better decisions, then we could have scored a little bit more. But we were solid when we didn’t have the ball.”
England will conclude 2025 with friendlies against China PR and Ghana on 29 November and 2 December respectively, with Wiegman keen to explore new oppositional challenges across both games to gather as much analysis of her team’s capabilities as possible.
“What we always want to do is improve every single game and we know we have four games against four very different opponents, which gives us different challenges, which is exactly what we want.
“You don’t get to play many friendlies anymore, so when you have those four, you want to get everything out of it and learn from it.”
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