Read Louise Taylor’s match report:
That’s all from me. It was, overall, a mildly encouraging evening. There were moments of great attacking class from England, leading to two excellent goals, but Spain probably should have equalised towards the end, particularly when Earps hared out of her area.
By the time England play again Phil Neville will have named his final World Cup squad. I’m not sure that anyone would have played their way into the squad this evening, or that Neville hadn’t already made up his mind anyway. They next play against Denmark in Walsall on 25 May. Bye!
A bit more from Neville:
We were brave in our substitutions. We wanted to see players play. I was disappointed with the defending [for their goal] and we can’t afford the best teams to have that kind of space in the area. We got a bit ragged in the second half.
I was never going to judge my players on tonight. I trust them, I care for them. I wanted them to go out and play with no fear, and after the first 10 minutes we did that.
Phil Neville has a post-match chat:
We made that many changes we lost our rhythm. I made the changes because I wanted us to see out the game. I wanted to see how we were going to cope and I was disappointed a little bit with our composure in the second half. It’s the end of the road, a long journey. Now we can concentrate on going to France. I’ve rotated, I’ve given everyone a chance. It’s time to get into World Cup mode.
Final score: England 2-1 Spain
90+6 mins: The corner is taken short, and that is that!
90+6 mins: It wasn’t that, as it turned out. England still had time to win a throw-in and a corner, and it still isn’t over!
90+5 mins: England have a free-kick on the half-way line, and that will surely be that. Caldentey gets booked, I think for being upset about the free-kick rather than for conceding it.
90+4 mins: Another cross into England’s area from the left, and a shot blocked.
90+3 mins: The corner flies across the edge of the six-yard box and out the other side! Putellas got closest to it at the far post, but it’s a bit too high for her.
90+2 mins: England are hanging on a bit now. Parris roars back to take the ball off Ouahabi’s toes but concedes a corner in the process.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time.
87 mins: Howling miss by Spain! The ball is played over the top to Gonzalez; Earps races out of her area but slices her clearance about five yards to Bonmati. The keeper is way out of her area, and when Bonmati checks inside she has Gonzalez in front of her, no goalkeeper to worry about and all sorts of time - but she slices her shot wide from 20 yards!
86 mins: England try to pass the ball out of defence again, and this time they execute it perfectly and roar off on the counter. Nothing much comes of it, but good to see it happen all the same.
85 mins: Yet another substitution, Spain bringing Gonzalez on for Hermoso.
84 mins: Nikita Parris is on, replacing Mead for England.
83 mins: England totally mess up an attempt to pass the ball out of defence. Bright passes across her area to Walsh, who is immediately under pressure. She gives the ball away but the referee very generously gives England a free-kick.
81 mins: What a pass that is! White hits a brilliant low, hard, first-time pass that curls between two defenders, around the far one and into the path of Mead, who tries to score from 40 yards and, well, doesn’t.
79 mins: Another substitution: Spain take off Losada and bring on Angela Sosa.
78 mins: Save! Torrecilla blasts the ball goalwards from 25 yards, but Earps shovels it away.
78 mins: Spain lift the ball over England’s defence to Caldentey, but Bonner slides in to dispossess her.
76 mins: Spain crowd around England’s penalty area gain, but Ubogagu steals the ball and passes to White, who convinces a Spaniard to foul her.
72 mins: Earps is back up and playing on, apparently fully recovered.
71 mins: Earps stays down, clutching a hamstring. The physios are on.
71 mins: Chance for Spain! The ball is played to Hermoso, whose shot is straight at Earps!
70 mins: This is now a hybrid between the first bit of the first half and the second bit of the second half, in that Spain are completely dominating possession and looking genuinely threatening.
GOAL! England 2-1 Spain (Bomati, 67 mins)
What an assist that is! Caldentey gets the ball on the left, takes it past Daly, takes it past Williamson, draws Earps and presents Bomati with a tap-in!
65 mins: Since coming on Ubogagu’s main role has been to gamely chase after passes that she’s never going to reach.
63 mins: There has been another momentum shift of late, with Spain reasserting themselves without, as of yet, creating a proper, genuine goalscoring chance. They bring Bonmati on for Sampedro.
59 mins: Spain are playing more direct now, sending the ball down the flanks and into channels. Daly concedes another corer with a fine challenge.
57 mins: Daly slides in well to tackle Ouahabi, and gets a kick in the guts for her pains. Spain have another corner.
55 mins: Bright shanks a clearance out of play for a corner, and though it’s played short Sampedro eventually crosses very well to Putellas at the far post, who heads wide.
53 mins: England also make a double change, Duggan and Moore going off, Ubogagu and Staniforth coming on.
52 mins: Spain make a couple of changes, bringing on Ouahabi and Andres and taking off Paredes and Leon.
47 mins: The straight pass from Moore to Scott was excellent, and then her pass into the are was fantastic. Paredes didn’t react quickly enough when she might have cut it out, and White slams it into the top corner with a first-time shot!
Updated
GOAL! England 2-0 Spain (White, 46 mins)
Within 40 seconds of the restart, England double their lead!
46 mins: Peeeeeep!
The players are back out, and England have brought on the Wolfsburg goalkeeper Mary Earps.
Here are Phil Neville’s half-time thoughts:
I was really pleased. The first 10 minutes it didn’t feel like we touched the ball. We were passive, we sat back and allowed Spain to get possession. Then all of a sudden we came alive and I thought we were electric. We grew into the half and started to get some rhythm to our play. I said at half-time you’ve got to stay on the front foot. If you allow a Spanish team to dictate the play then you’re going to get tired.
Half time: England 1-0 Spain
45+2 mins: And that’s it, for now. The first part of the half was quite concerning, and the second was massively encouraging. England go in a goal up!
45+1 mins: There will be one minute of stoppage time.
44 mins: What an interesting half it’s been. England hardly touched the ball for 20 minutes but have proved themselves to be massively superior in attack once they were allowed to actually, you know, attack.
42 mins: Leon races into England’s penalty area and is fed the ball, but White has got back to slide in and take it right off her again.
39 mins: Here’s the goal. White did look slightly offside-ish, but the referee’s assistant certainly had a better view than me.
THERE IT ISSSSS!! @bmeado9 puts us in front! pic.twitter.com/8evWuRV2e1
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) April 9, 2019
Updated
39 mins: An injury forces Spain to bring off Meseguer and bring on Torrecila.
37 mins: That was another excellent move. Moore plays a great pass to Duggan, coming inside from the left wing. She passes to White on the left of the area, she spears in a low cross and Mead taps in at the back stick!
Updated
GOAL! England 1-0 Spain (Mead, 36 mins)
And now England have the lead!
32 mins: So, to summarise, when Spain aren’t completely hogging the ball, they are completely falling apart defensively. It’s either one extreme or the other.
Updated
29 mins: A great chance for England! Mead has the ball in the area, Pereira slides in to dispossess but misses the ball and just keeps sliding, leaving Mead free to have a left-foot shot on goal! Panos saves it, though.
29 mins: Daly and Mead link up nicely down the right again, but the cross is cleared and Stanway’s eventual shot is easily saved.
26 mins: Scott goes down, having apparently been thumped in the head from behind off the ball by Sampedro. It might have been an innocent collision, but it looked pretty easy for the Spaniard to avoid it. The referee saw nothing, and Scott gets back to her feet after a short period spent wondering what on earth happened.
25 mins: Holland have had some fun tonight. Danielle van de Donk scored four, with Vivianna Miedema, Shanice van de Sanden and Lieke Martens scoring once each:
Afgelopen! 7-0 👏👏#NEDCHI pic.twitter.com/dpsgy20Xtn
— OranjeLeeuwinnen (@oranjevrouwen) April 9, 2019
23 mins: That’s England’s best move of the game, by a margin, and it ends with Scott pulling the ball back, and White’s first-time shot hitting a defender and looping to the keeper.
22 mins: The last few minutes have been much more equal. There is a huge stylistic difference between the sides, though, with the speed at which England attack meaning they will give the ball away more frequently.
20 mins: A few moments later Leon pulls back Mead, and she’s also booked.
19 mins: Jill Scott loses the ball in midfield tries to win it back from Leon with a late and loose sliding tackle, and is booked.
18 mins: Duggan is feeling her right knee, and doesn’t look at all happy. She is playing on, though.
16 mins: England try to pass the ball out of defence, which doesn’t go brilliantly and ends with a harried defender booting it into the stands.
15 mins: England hit a clearance into the referee, who blows her whistle and decides there should be an uncontested drop ball, allowing England to clear it again without her getting in the way.
14 mins: And then England nearly score! White is played down the left and crosses towards Mead, but Panos comes out to grasp the ball before it can get there!
12 mins: England’s defence continues to hold firm, and Spain continue to hold the ball.
Updated
9 mins: Spain win a free-kick, which they take quickly while the referee is lining up the wall. The ball floats into the net, but the referee is unimpressed and brings play back again. This time Spain take it short, and Leon shoots over from 23 yards.
8 mins: Now England have a free-kick, a Spanish forward having strayed offside. Within 10 seconds Spain the ball back again.
7 mins: Spain have just misplaced a pass. England have a throw-in, which makes this their moment of the match so far.
5 mins: This one is headed clear. The ball is back on the halfway line, but Spain still have the ball. England have barely touched it so far.
4 mins: Neither corner comes to much, but Spain have now won another one.
3 mins: Good delivery from the free kick, and Spain test England’s young goalkeeper, who doesn’t deal with it very convincingly. A corner follows, and then another.
2 mins: There is, we’re told, a “swirling, deceptive wind” in Swindon this evening. There’s also a swirling, deceptive leg from Mead, who hacks down Leon. That’s a really very poor tackle, and would surely have been a booking in a competitive match.
1 min: Moments before kick-off, the BBC show a moody shot of the view from the top of the stand, before panning back into the ground. This is often very effective, but sadly the view they showed us was of some traffic on a local roundabout.
I’m not sure where making nine changes sits with Phil Neville’s stated desire for a win to kick-start England’s momentum ahead of the World Cup. We are about to find out how wise his decision was.
The players have just emerged from the tunnel with kick-off just a few minutes away!
Updated
Ellie Roebuck makes her debut in goal tonight. England have good goalkeeping options and Roebuck is very much the youngest and freshest of them, at a mere 19 years of age. She has made 13 first-team appearances for Manchester City this season.
Updated
Spain’s starting line-up will be as follows: Panos, Corredera, Pereira, Paredes, Leon, Losada, Meseguer, Sampedro, Putellas, Caldentey, Hermoso.
Phil Neville has a chat:
I was still pleased [on Friday]. The players tried to do the right things. We’ve made a lot of changes tonight. We’ve changed system a little bit. It’s a great opportunity for the players that are coming in to stake their claim.
This camp, I’ve noticed some anxiety among the players because it’s the last camp before selection, which will be in a few weeks’ time. What I said to them is that tonight is not a trial. Tonight’s for me to confirm what I think about them. I’ve watched them a lot for the last 12-14 months. I want them to go out and enjoy themselves, and we want to keep this momentum going with a win.
England will line up like this:
Your starting XI for #RoadToFrance game No. 2.
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) April 9, 2019
Let's go ✨ pic.twitter.com/hqqNAwkhJ3
Nine changes! Nine of them!
Hello world!
So England take another step towards France, having taken a slight mis-step when losing to Canada on Friday night. That’s what friendlies are for, etc and so forth. Phil Neville says that things are going to change for this game, starting with the players: Steph Houghton is injured for a start, as is Lucy Bronze (though it depends on who you ask), while Carly Telford has concussion.
Spain are ranked 13th in the world, 10 places below England (and eight below Canada). “Spain will be different to Canada,” says Phil Neville. They’ll speak a different language, for a start. “Spain will be probably more of a technical game where they look to interchange in midfield and play five- or 10-yard passes rather than a more direct style like Canada played.”
Toni Duggan, who plays for Barcelona, says she has been “bigging the game up like it’s the World Cup final” and that her club dressing room as been “a bit tasty” in the build-up to the game. “It will be a tough game,” she says. “Hopefully we can impose our own style though - mainly so I can go back to Barcelona with the bragging rights!”
And so the scene is set, for 90 minutes of friendly-plus action in Swindon. It should be a lot of fun. Welcome!
