Grace Clinton described scoring on her England debut as “what dreams are made of” after the Lionesses completed a 7-2 rout of Austria in the first of two international friendlies in Spain.
Clinton headed home Lauren Hemp’s delivery in the 19th minute at the Estadio Nuevo Mirador for her first senior international goal, having minutes earlier seen an effort come back off of a post.
The 20-year-old looked comfortable throughout her 62 minutes on the pitch and her performance drew praise from boss Sarina Wiegman.
Clinton told ITV: “It’s what dreams are made of. I’m very happy. I did picture this moment since I was a child, definitely, but I didn’t know it would be with my head!
“I’m just absolutely buzzing.”
The Liverpudlian has impressed in the Women’s Super League this season for Tottenham, where she is on loan from Manchester United, scoring four goals and picking up two assists across 13 league appearances.
She hopes her efforts for club and now country will be enough to sufficiently impress Wiegman, who said she would use this encounter and Tuesday’s Italy friendly as a chance to experiment ahead of April’s opening Euro 2025 qualifiers.
Clinton, whose parents were able to witness their daughter’s achievement in person, added: “It’s so competitive, so many great players in the squad and to be in and around them is an unbelievable experience, so to be competing in there is what you want to be doing.”
Alessia Russo opened the scoring inside three minutes and finished with two goals and an assist in Algeciras, while her Arsenal team-mate Beth Mead also bagged a brace and late goals from Jess Carter and Rachel Daly completed the rout.
Wiegman is notoriously reluctant to single out specific players, but told ITV: “I think that’s a dream debut for (Clinton). I think she played well too, she had done really well in training and plays well for Tottenham and I think she was enjoying herself.
“It was a very good goal, so I’m very happy for her.”
The biggest concern for the England boss will be that both of Virginia Kirchberger’s headed goals for Austria came from set-pieces on either side of half-time.
Wiegman said: “I’m so happy with the seven goals and the performance, of course there’s also the little things you’re not happy with.
“We conceded two goals out of corners, one we didn’t block great and the second one we should have got the header. Of course we want to do that better.”
England’s friendly double-header marks their first games of 2024 and also their first since failing to qualify for the semi-finals of the Nations League after finishing runners-up to Wiegman’s native Netherlands, who advanced to the final four of the new Olympic qualifying tournament.
Those semi-finals were also staged on Friday night, with World Cup winners Spain booking their trip to the Paris Games by beating the Netherlands 3-0 to reach the final, where they will meet France.
Due to France’s automatic qualification as hosts, the third and final European Olympic place will be awarded to the winners of a third-place play-off between Germany and the Netherlands.
Wiegman insisted her European champions have moved on from the disappointment of not qualifying a Great Britain team for the Games, adding: “The full focus is on the Euro qualifiers, starting with these friendlies and then for the Euros next year.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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