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England v Ukraine: Women’s World Cup qualifier – live | Women’s World Cup 2027 qualifiers
Key events
50 mins: Russo has a snapshot from inside the box but it is blocked.
Moments later Greenwood lines up a free-kick from the other side of 30 yards but it is straight at the wall.
48 mins: No surprise but it is all England at the moment. I will predict five second half goals.
46 mins: Some half times changes …
Hlushchenko and Radionova are on for Ukraine. Kohut and Kunina off.
Mead and Greenwood enter the pitch for England, Morgan and James off.
Second half
Here we go again!
Spain are winning 3-0 in Iceland. No concerns of any shocks tonight.
Tom Garry
It’s been one-way traffic. If you think this game is one-sided, just wait for October’s play-off first round tie against a League C team! The fans at the Hill Dickinson seem to be enjoying it, nonetheless. There are two little pockets of Ukraine fans who are also in good voice, too, as the sun sets to my left over the Mersey.
Tony Mason emails: “I must take issue with your statement that the cost of tickets to see England at Wembley was “incredibly expensive”. This is a misconception. The cheapest England tickets at Wembley are and have been since the “new” Wembley opened are about the same price as a League 1 fixture. Slightly more than I pay to see Notts County. There are also many of the cheapest tickets so you don’t even need to be waiting on a Ticketmaster queue to get them.
“Also, although Wembley isn’t the best positioned ground in the country it isn’t that hard to get to from much of the country. From Nottingham I would get home after an evening kick-off at about 00:30. My mate travels in from Bristol and it is about the same. Granted, we drive but coaches do run from the major cities.
“Having said that, it is always nice to see them around the country.”
I’ve just put in for the best available ticket for the Czechia game in October and it’s £120. You can, in fairness, get tickets for £35 but I really wouldn’t want to travel three hours to then sit at the top in the corner. That’s just me.
Half time: England 2-0 Ukraine
This has not been much of a contest, well any contest whatsoever. The main surprise is that England have not managed to get more than two but ahead very much out of sight thanks to Carter and Stanway.
45 mins: One minute added on.
44 mins: Hemp receives the ball around 20 yards out, spins a defender and fires a shot but flies over the bar.
43 mins: James curls a free-kick from the edge of the box just over the bar.
41 mins: A band is trying to whip the crowd up with Sweet Caroline, the most overplayed song in history.
39 mins: With confidence renewed, Hemp whips in a cross from the right into a dangerous position but no one is there to get on the end of it.
GOAL! England 2-0 Ukraine (Stanway, 37)
The Lionesses needed that. Russo sneaks around the back and slides the ball across to Stanway who slides home at the back post.
36 mins: James loops in a cross from the left which Boklach comes to claim but it takes her two attempts to get the ball under control.
England and the atmosphere have gone quite flat.
34 mins: England have a corner on the right. Le Tissier and James combine once more but it is a slow burner, with the ball belatedly being sent into the box by Walsh, only to be easily collected by the goalkeeper.
32 mins: England are too casual at the back and it gifts Boychuk a first chance of the match but her shot from the edge of the box is scuffed.
30 mins: England will be disappointed they have not got a second but, in truth, they have not come that close to adding to the tally.
The ball goes into the box again but Charles is penalised for something or other.
28 mins: Hemp crashes into the hoardings after a challenge in the box. After brushing herself down, she is up and ready to go again.
Blindkilde Brown has not got into the game much thus far. I would like to see more of her. Just as I write that, she gets in a good position in the box but is tackled before she can shoot. Not to worry, as the ball lands at Russo’s feet but she lashes over.
26 mins: Same old story without England being able to penetrate.
24 mins: Le Tissier should do better from a Charles pull-back but the defender is leaning back and whacks her shot from 12 yards well over.
England currently enjoying more than 86% possession.
22 mins: Hampton’s only involvement thus far has been with her feet. I am not sure she will be kept occupied by shots here.
Russo’s shirt is held when 30 yards out with her back to goal. England take it quickly but Hemp is pushed backwards.
Hemp then thinks she has a great chance to score but Shaynyuk puts in a perfect tackle in the nick of time.
20 mins: The free-kick is tapped to Hemp who fires a shot from 20 yards but Boklach moves quickly to her left to save.
The goalkeeper is tested soon after when Russo meets a cross but her header lacks power and Boklach collects.
18 mins: Stanway and Hemp combine well, allowing the latter to pick out James inside the box but her shot is blocked.
England have a free-kick in a dangerous position after James is bundled over …
Tom Garry
17 mins: That feels like it’ll be the first of many. Lauren James’ cross was sumptuous. But Ukraine can’t even get close to her. It could be a long night for the visitors. The home fans here really enjoyed that goal and they’re all on their feet but England can’t get too excited to be ahead – Spain are already winning in Iceland.
16 mins: I think it is fair to say the goal was coming.
Russo is the next to have a chance but her header loops well wide.
GOAL! England 1-0 Ukraine (Carter, 14)
Hemp wins another corner. Le Tissier decides to take another one short to James. This forward shows some trickery before chipping a cross to the back post from where Carter nods home across the goalkeeper.
12 mins: England have a corner on the right. Le Tissier takes it short to James who pings it towards the far top corner, only to see her shot bounce off bar and post into the goalkeeper’s arms.
10 mins: The free-kick comes to nothing but England continue to attack.
The space is outwide for England, may I suggest James drifts further over to the left. She would be more dangerous than Charles out there.
8 mins: Hemp aims for Russo in the box but a Ukrainian head meets the cross. I will guess the possession stats as being Eng 98%-2% Ukraine.
Le Tissier is crudely taken down by Boychuk just outside the box.
Spain are ahead in Iceland. No surprise there.
6 mins: Charles is starting very high on the left and being allowed to push forward from full-back. England will have plenty of freedom to attack considering the lack of ambition among the Ukrainians.
4 mins: Ukraine try to break but Le Tissier is there to tidy up.
England start again from the back from move up the pitch in a composed manner. Hemp has a cross blocked but the ball is recycled and ends up back with the City winger, who shoots from 20 yards only to hit it straight at the goalkeeper.
2 mins: A positive start from England as they pushed forward to put pressure on the Ukrainian backline. The visitors are keen to defend as deep as humanly possible.
Hemp puts in a dangerous cross from the right but it drifts over everyone inside the box.
Kick off
Peep! Peep! Peep! Here we go!
Tom Garry
Smoke fills the air as fireworks jet out from the side of the pitch as the players emerge to a crowd of around 30,000. The upper tier is mostly empty, but the lower bowl is busy. Ukraine’s players each have their national flag wrapped around them as they sing their anthem, which receives a generous round of applause from the home fans.
The Ukraine players, each clad in a national flag, sing the national anthem.
ITV are not particularly interested in this game, they have spoken about Friday night for about 15 mins. Look forward, folks.
Sarina Wiegman: “Every game you don’t win, it hurts. Friday was a hard one because we didn’t create any momentum.
“Of course you want to win but always when we lose, win or draw we look at things we can do better but when you lose it makes it more urgent.
“We want to have some freshness and some other players. We expect very tight spaces and she [Blindkilde Brown] position herself really well, she finds the ball and that’s why we brought her in.”
Gordon emails in: “After the debacle of last Friday, and, let us not forget, a poor performance in Iceland, many were calling for changes in the England XI, and, indeed, I am pleased to see Le Tissier, Charles, and Blindkilde Brown starting tonight.
“But, to me, it is inexplicable that Walsh and Stanway retain their spots. These two were embarrassingly poor against Spain last Friday – they had rings run round them by Putellas and co. Their inclusion tonight begs the question – how poor do they have to be to get dropped? Lucia Kendall and Jess Park should be playing in their place.
“I have belatedly realised that Sarina Wiegman has been without her long-time assistant Arjan Veurink since last year’s Euros triumph – he is now the head coach of the Netherlands Women. I am beginning to think that he was the brains of the outfit.”
Will England bounce back or will they be pulped?
It is only four changes for Wiegman tonight, so not as many as some anticipated but will freshen things up.
Not just about England tonight. There will be a decent amount in the away end.
It is great to see England playing away from Wembley. The only time I had much interest in the national side was when they were travelling around during the construction of the new stadium. Getting to Wembley from pretty much anywhere outside London is a massive pain and it is incredibly expensive for tickets, as a general rule.
Pre-match reading …
Starting lineups
England (4-3-3): Hampton; Le Tissier, Carter, Morgan, Charles; Walsh, Stanway, Blindkilde Brown; Hemp, Russo, James.
Subs: Bronze, Moorhouse, Toone, Wubben-Moy, Greenwood, Kelly, Kendall, Mead, Park, Baggaley, Beever-Jones, Fisk
Ukraine (4-2-3-1): Boklach; Savka, Olkhova, Shmatko, Shaynyuk; Kotyk, Zaborovets; Molodiuk, Kohut, Kunina; Boychuk.
Subs: Basanska, Hlushchenko, Holovach, Keliushyk, Khrystiuk, Kotiash, Podolska, Radionova, Samson, Semkiv
Preamble
This will almost certainly not be the end of England’s World Cup qualifying campaign because, barring a strange set of results tonight, they will be heading into the playoffs later this year. The Lionesses are level of points with Spain but sit second thanks to an inferior head-to-head records having been thrashed on Friday in Mallorca.
Sarina Wiegman is set to make changes at Hill Dickinson Stadium tonight. The dreadful result in Spain may have influenced the decision but after a lengthy season, some players will need a rest. England are strong favourites in Liverpool, so rotation is unlikely to harm their chances.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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