In truth there wasn’t a colossal amount that England and manager Sampson could have done about that. Germany were just so much stronger, even with five absentees and playing at around 75% for the second-half. Still, decent preparation before the World Cup in Canada next year, and 55,000 for a women’s international at Wembley is terrific. Farewell, and thanks for reading.
Full-time: England 0-3 Germany
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeep. The final whistle goes, and that was something of a cruise for the Germans.
90 mins + 2: England frantically looking for a goal to get something from this game, but their attacks are repelled by the German massed ranks.
90 mins + 1: Ruth Purdue is back, and she’s brought the pith:
“Lets summarise shall we? Germany are well organised, well drilled and can pass the ball on the floor to each other. England…errr aren’t and cannot.”
90 mins: Chance for England - Bronze makes tracks down the right and plays inside, Scott slips her marker and has a great chance, but she hits the side netting from a narrow angle when there were a couple of attackers just waiting for the square ball in the middle.
Laura Bassett is on for Bronze.
88 mins: Sasci and Cramer both come off, replaced by Babett Peter and Verena Faisst.
87 mins: Tired legs and minds out there now. Bardsley looks like Batman with a bomb when given a rather robust backpass, and her weak clearance almost gives Mittag a chance, but it’s eventually cleared.
84 mins: Two more subs for England - Jo Potter and Alex Greenwood come on, Stokes and Scott are withdrawn.
Updated
83 mins: A nice pass from Duggan puts Kirby in on the edge of the area, and despite a handy shoulder drop taking her past one defender, she’s eventually crowded out. Taylor then gets in on the right, but her shot goes across goal and goes wide.
80 mins: The subs are coming at an Erikssonian pace now - Sanderson departs, Jodie Taylor enters the fray.
79 mins: Another piece of neat build-up play from England sets up Scott for the cross, but her effort is something of a looper and it drops straight into Schult’s arms.
78 mins: Oh sweet fancy Moses, the band are now playing ‘Is This The Way To Amarillo’. Push them into the sea.
76 mins: Change for Germany - Laudher is off, Pauline Bremer is on.
75 mins: Duggan plays a neat reverse pass looking for the run of Kirby, but it’s just to long for the substitute.
73 mins: Bodies all over the floor in the area, as a cross comes over and Popp clatters into keeper Bardsley which also sends Houghton flying too. Bardsley did superbly to hold onto the ball, mind.
71 mins: England put together some neat passes on the edge of the box, but can’t quite carve out a decent shooting opportunity. Nearly, but not quite.
70 mins: Scott replaces Fara Williams, who has been solid enough at the base of England’s midfield.
69 mins: Another change ahoy for England - Jill Scott is coming on. Not this one.
67 mins: Sasic goes close for Germany, heading a Mattig cross straight at Bardsley, but she should probably have left the ball to Laudehr at the back stick, who was running onto the cross so would’ve been able to get more on the header.
64 mins: Marozsan, who most were quite surprised didn’t start the game, is showing why. She seems a cut above most other players on the pitch with her touch, and nearly creates another chance for the Germans.
63 mins: The telly cameras keep panning to the England band. Don’t encourage them like this.
62 mins: Change for England - Fran Kirby is on, and slightly surprisingly Aluko is the woman coming off. She hasn’t been much good so far, but none of the England attackers really have, and Aluko can always cause problems with her pace.
60 mins: Marozsan plays an absolutely delicious ball from centre to the left wing, but England just about manage to smuggle it clear, despite a miscontrol by Carney on the edge of her own box.
58 mins: Carney hoops the free-kick over herself, but it’s headed clear and Nobbs can’t bring the second ball under control.
“What do you think the England plan is?” asks Ruth Purdue. “Hope the Germans forget what they are doing?”
That or pray for complacency, alas.
57 mins: First booking of the game, and Mittag’s first contribution is to get a yellow card for absolutely wiping Carney out on the left flank. Easy call for the ref, that.
55 mins: Nothing to do with this game, but enjoy...
Here's a picture of a dog in a Hull City shirt outside the KC. #hcafc pic.twitter.com/wdt4XxzCGC
— Dale Johnson (@dalejohnsonESPN) November 23, 2014
54 mins: Belting ball over from Carney, but there aren’t enough England attackers in the danger area and Bronze is outnumbered. Meanwhile, we’ve just had the first mention of the word ‘efficient’ in relation to the Germans by Sue Smith on co-comms. 54 minutes was definitely the over in that particular sweepstake.
53 mins: Sanderson - sporting an absolutely reprehensible haircut - does splendidly to win a free-kick on the right. Chance for England here as Carney stands over the ball.
52 mins: The band now appear to have struck up the theme from Wallace and Grommit. This must stop.
50 mins: Ooof, bit of chaos caused in the German defence. Sanderson does very well down the right to put an early, low cross in looking for Aluko. She doesn’t quite get there as Krahn shovels the ball clear, but the defender collides with keeper Schult and looks a little dazed.
48 mins: Duggan brings the ball down outside the area, but a spell of some quite neat passes comes to nothing as Cramer wins a throw off Scott on the German left.
46 mins: England kick us off, and Duggan tries to drive straight through the middle of the German team straight away. Optimistic, to say the least.
The teams are out for the second-half, and there are three changes for Germany. Jennifer Marozsan, Anya Mittag and Luisa Wensing have replaced Leupolz, Kemme and Behringer.
Over in the Premier League, Daniel Harris is keeping tabs on Hull v Tottenham, which has just started.
It goes from bad to worse for Arsenal...
Horrendous performance by Gunnersaurus in the mascot derby. Strolling in second last doing goofy thumbs up. You've let yourself down
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) November 23, 2014
Ruth Purdue pretty much nails that first-half: “That goal was a simple as you can get. Not one England player closed the ball down. England can’t pass the ball at all. Back to basics should be the key for 2nd half.
“It is not enough for people on the BBC to just use every adjective in the book. They are just playing simple and using their technical ability to pass to each other. There seems to be very little centre midfield and its being overrun. I am bored of the whole “big heart” attitude.”
Half-time plug. Guardian Witness would like to hear about your experiences with women’s football: stories, pictures, videos, tweets - whatever you like:
Have you attended a World Cup qualifier? Are you going to Wembley on Sunday? Do you coach or play for one of the new clubs that have been established in the last few years? We would love to see photographs of your teams, kits and matches.
You can share your photos, videos and experiences by clicking on the blue ‘Contribute’ button on this article. You can also use the GuardianWitness smartphone app or the new Guardian app and search for ‘GuardianWitness assignments’ – and if you add it to the homepage – you can keep up with all our assignments.
Half-time: England 0-3 Germany
Ach, well, as we thought before the game, the Germans are just much stronger than the English. Nobbs went close to giving England the lead in the opening seconds of the game, but since then the visitors simply haven’t look threatened, and have looked like they would score every time they go forwards.
45 mins: Simple stuff again for Germany. Popp feeds Kemme running up from right-back on the corner of the area, she clips over a cross and finds Sasic in the midddle, completely unmarked, and she’s given a ludicrously simple task of guiding a header just inside the far post. All that good work from England undone with some incredibly basic defensive mistakes.
GOAL! England 0-3 Germany (Sasic 45)
Ah.
44 mins: England very much on top now. Carney muscles out an opening on the left after being slipped in by Stokes, but her cross is blocked. Duggan gets her head to the corner at the near post, but it’s blocked again.
42 mins: The band (unfortunately not ‘The Band’) have started playing ‘The A Team’ theme. It’s enough to make me pray for the sweet release of the infinite.
41 mins: Good play and a good effort from England. Some neat passing sets up a cross from the left, which is half-cleared by Henning, but it falls to Williams who chests the ball down and shoots, but doesn’t quite get hold of it, and Schult manages to keep hold of the wet ball.
38 mins: German head coach Silvia Neid bears a passing resemblance to stalwart of ‘The Bill’ Sgt June Ackland. Who, coincidentally, I saw emerging from the Eurostar the other day. Hope she’d been somewhere nice.
37 mins: England are, to employ some Ronglish, knocking at the door here, but the German defence looks pretty solid and they’re having little to no joy.
35 mins: Duggan drives forward from the left, but without any obvious significant threat, and curiously Leupolz drags her to the floor.
33 mins: GOA...oh, no, it’s offside. Blimey, that was close. Behringer swings over a free-kick from the left, Leupolz gets her head to it and the soap-like ball slips through Bardsley’s hands and into the net. However, the German winger was just - just - offside. Terrific spot from the lino, lucky escape for the England keeper.
31 mins: Some neat work from Popp slips a pass towards Sasic, but Bronze stomps over to put in a beefy challenge. Plenty of oomph to that one.
29 mins: As an aside, harking back to the bafflement that the goal review system caused him during the World Cup in Brazil, Pearce on the BBC comms initially thought the England players were claiming there had been a deliberate back-pass. Possible he’s cross-eyed.
28 mins: Slightly odd moment as Scott crosses from the right, probably meant for someone in the middle, but Nobbs puts a looping header towards goal. Schult is under it and catches relatively cleanly, but steps back and there are some half-hearted claims that she took it over the line. No dice, though.
27 mins: Carney seems to be doing everything now - she nips in to tidy up after Popp nearly gets through the England backline.
25 mins: A brief moment of excitement as Carney cannily nutmegs Kemme out on the England left, but after the showboating, the attack comes to nothing.
24 mins: A semi-salient point by Jonathan Pearce on the telly commentary - the German league is still very much occurring, whereas the English Women’s Super League finished a few weeks back, so match fitness could be an issue. Germany being much better at football could be another issue, of course.
22 mins: Bit of space for England down the left of the box, with Sanderson driving into it, but three German defenders quickly crowd her and she’s unable to get a proper cross over.
21 mins: Actually, Williams’ left knee is being bandaged, so presumably she was bleeding. Apologies to the ref for being so darn judgemental.
20 mins: Williams lines up the corner, but the referee wanders over to object to something about her person. Not clear what - could’ve been something to do with her boots, but she’s sent to sort whatever it is out. Maybe her socks? The official seems like quite the jobsworth, anyway.
19 mins: Another attack for England as Carney dispossesses Kemme with a pretty robust challenge, then wins a corner. Kemme needs some treatment, but it didn’t look like there was too much wrong with the tackle.
18 mins: Aluko shows some neat footwork on the right side of the area, but she loses out to Henning, then fouls the German centre-half in trying to win the thing back.
16 mins: A bit of adventure from England, as Stokes drives down the line, but her cross is a little aimless and goes behind Duggan and Sanderson in the box.
15 mins: England had a team huddle after that goal - after just a quarter of an hour, it seems to be damage-limitation time.
12 mins: Again, pretty easy, as England find themselves desperately exposed on the counter-attack. Sasic finds herself in acres and is allowed to run half the length of the pitch, Scott trying to get back and Bronze was in two minds about whether to go to the ball or cover another attacker. In the end she did neither, and Sasic had time to measure a splendid dinked, left-footed finish.
GOAL! England 0-2 Germany (Sasic 12)
Oh. This could get embarrassing.
10 mins: England try to get back in the game with a corner on the right. It’s half-cleared, and Carney hoys it into the box looking for Houghton, but the flag goes up. Meanwhile, another angle on the German goal suggests it was Scott who actually got the final touch. An ogger.
8 mins: Sorry to report that the England band appears to be at Wembley. Or *a* band is there - I just like to think that it’s *the* band, because that would mean there aren’t two of them.
6 mins: Well, that’s wazzed on England’s fire somewhat. And it was depressingly easy for the Germans to score too - Behringer whips over a corner from the left, and Simone Laudehr is there at the near post to nod home. Slack marking from Alex Scott there.
GOAL! England 0-1 Germany (Laudehr 6)
Oh.
4 mins: A long ball over the top looks for Aluko’s pace to the right of the box, but Henning calmly holds off the Chelsea forward, turns and clears.
2 mins: And Germany go close, Leupolz advancing down the right, her effort is blocked but it falls out to Laudehr on the left side of the area. However, the Frankfurt winger’s shot skews well wide.
1 min: And we’re away, Germany kicking off, but Popp is immediately robbed Toni Duggan, who feeds Jordan Nobbs. The midfielder advances forwards and belts a shot towards goal that twangs off the bar, possibly with a touch from keeper Schult. Smashing start.
Despite the absences, that is a helluva German front five. Come on England.
— Georgina Turner (@georgina_turner) November 23, 2014
Karen Carney is being presented with a golden cap, commemorating her 100th appearance for England. She’s only 27 too. Have that, Wayne Rooney.
Assuming these two sides go with the same systems they have in recent games, England will be playing a midfield diamond with two up top. The BBC have Toni Duggan playing at the point of the diamond with Lianne Sanderson and Eni Aluko up front, but the latter could easily be in midfield too.
Germany’s main threat will come from centre-foward Celia Sasic, who will win her 99th cap today, having scored 53 goals in the process. And she has been speaking like, well, a German footballer:
We just know Wembley from history and legend, from TV, so it will be very special. It’s not usual business. But our coach never speaks about the crowd. We just focus on the team, on the skills and on the players.
We are all experienced enough to cope with that. I personally like to play in front of such a big crowd, especially when it is not our home crowd. This is something really motivating. We want to play our game, to show our great quality in the team. We don’t want to let England get into the game. We want to dominate and win.
If you’d like to kill some time before this one starts, Simon Burnton has another 40 minutes or so of Crystal Palace v Liverpool for you, over here.
I wonder how much of the game the England women's crowd are going to spend endlessly chanting about the IRA
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) November 23, 2014
Team news
England
Bardsley; Scott, Stokes, Houghton, Bronze; Williams, Nobbs, Aluko, Carney; Sanderson, Duggan. Subs: Bassett, Chamberlain, Greenwood, Rafferty, Potter, Moore, Scott, Kirby, Taylor, Telford, Clarke.
Germany
Schult; Henning, Kemme, Krahn, Cramer; Laudher, Popp, Goessling, Behringer, Leupolz; Sasic. Subs: Benkarth, Weiss, Kamper, Schmidt, Peter, Bremer, Maroszan, Mittag, Hendrich, Wensing, Faisst, Peterman, Dabritz.
You tend to get a little blasé about the size of crowds at football, after watching it for so long. But forget all that and think about it for a second. 55,000 people. Fifty-five thousand. Most of us soil ourselves at having to give a speech to 100 people at a wedding, and that’s just talking out loud, so imagine how you’d feel if you were asked to do something incredibly difficult like play international football in front of that many people. Of course, this won’t be the first time some of England’s team will have played in front of such a crowd. Eight of the current squad appeared in the Olympics for Great Britain, when over 70,000 watched their surprise win over Brazil at Wembley, a victory which Hope Powell said was inspired by the size of the crowd. This will be the biggest attendance at an England home international though, besting the previous record of 29,092, set in a game against Finland at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester back in 2005.
Of course, where the FA and London public transport is involved, there will inevitably be an edge taken off any feeling of goodwill and excitement, for while 55,000 is a stonkingly impressive crowd, Wembley could probably have come close to selling out completely if it was allowed to be. Whichever brainiac decided that the day of a major sporting event like this was the best time to run maintenance on the Jubilee and Metropolitan underground lines, meaning the main tube station serving the stadium will be closed, deserves a sound thrashing with a wet slipper. Wembley is frankly something of a pain in the arse to get to/away from at the best of times, so godspeed to the brave souls scrapping their way through the London rain this afternoon.
It is easy to get caught up in the ‘event’, and forget there is a football match to be played, and one that frankly England should probably lose. Germany are ranked second in the world, haven’t lost to the English in the previous 19 games and gave them a frightful 6-2 hoying the last time the two sides met, in the Euro 2009 final. Additionally, Germany won the last European Championships, while England didn’t get out of their group, a shambles that cost Powell her job.
Her replacement Mark Sampson oversaw a casual saunter to qualification for next year’s World Cup in Canada, winning all ten game, scoring 52 (fifty-two) goals in the process and conceding just one. In case you’re interested, the one woman to breach the England defence was Ukraine’s Olha Ovdiychuk. Indeed, last time out England stuck ten past Montenegro, Eni Aluko helping herself to a hattrick.
Germany have a few injury problems but are expected to put out a pretty strong side, whereas Sampson has a full-strength squad from which to select, and he sounds pretty confident about the whole hoopla:
We’re a fairly new England team with no real history yet, and no bad memories of the past. We’re excited by the challenge that Germany will present us with, and it will certainly give us the chance to see where we’re at in terms of progress.
We’ve got strategies for whatever we might face, and the players are ready for what will hopefully be a great day for women’s football.
Nick will be here shortly. Meanwhile, read Anna Kessel’s look at the long journey England have been on to reach this point:
Attempt to trace the history of women’s football and you will frequently come unstuck. There are as many questions as answers, precious snippets buried away in archives, forgotten and dusty, still waiting to be uncovered. That so much of the past is missing is, of course, symptomatic of archaic attitudes surrounding the development of the women’s game.
On Sunday afternoon England play Germany at Wembley in front of 55,000 people, an indication that the game is more accepted than ever. But why do we remain so dismissive, so ignorant, of its past? As Gillian Coulthard, one of the stars of the 1980s women’s football scene and England’s first female player to win more than 100 caps, put it: “Without history you don’t have today, do you?”
In many cases that history is still being discovered. Until recently the first ever recorded women’s football match was thought to be North v South, in 1895, but that has now been preceded by Scotland v England, 14 years earlier. More than 1,000 people watched that first game at Easter Road in Edinburgh, part of a series of matches that took place the same year, which cannot be granted official international status as it is believed that the women occasionally swapped sides. A second game, just a week later in Glasgow, was interrupted by pitch invaders attacking the female players.
