Tranmerekat on Tour: Seven Goals, I'm Miserable Now

England Women host Germany Women in a Friendly at Wembley Stadium

The Lionesses face 'Die Nationalelf' at Prenton Park South. It's their first meeting since the EURO Final here 817 days ago. That went quite well. It's a friendly today as the both teams have already qualified for next summer's Euros in Switzerland. There is no surprise in the line up. Hannah is in goal with Leah and Millie in front of her. Lucy and Jess Carter are out wide. In the middle are Kiera, Georgia and Tooney. Up front are the three Omigo's, Hempo, Meado and Russo. Is that a stale line up and are there better players able to bring more energy. Thankfully there is no Oberdorf,(ACL), Popp or Madgull. Germany is trying something new for a friendly. Sounds like a good idea. Will the experience of England shine against the fresh energy of the young German squad. With AKB in goal, let's hope it doesn’t come down to a penalty shoot out. There is a fantastic light show linking to the crowd’s mobiles along with the wheelie bins of fire and fireworks. Great show, hope the football isn’t a let down after that. We held up our white card to help make up the St Georges flag during the national anthem. Hope it makes it to the telly this time. Time to play.

It’s a bad start for the Lionesses. In the first minute, Leah’s pass to Millie is miles short, it's intercepted and player through to Dallman. the ball. Millie clips her heels as she chases her into the box. It’s a yellow for Millie and a penalty for Germany. Gwinn makes no mistake putting it past Hannah. 0-1. A long ball from Kiera on 10 finds Ella. She is ushered wide but back heels it to Russo who buries it. But, the off-side flag goes up as Tooney was off for the initial long ball. Boo. Gwinn doubles the lead on 11 with a move straight from the off-side free kick. It’s long to Gwinn who puts it in after just 2 touches in the attacking half. 0-2. Hannah only touching the ball to pick it out of the net twice so far this half. It’s the Germans turn to be dodgy at the back. Russo is the beneficiary but it skims the inside of the post and away to safety. Beth nicks the ball on the German touchline. She gets a cross in but it goes out for a corner that comes to nothing. Another long German ball splits the England defence and Klara Buhl hits it home on 28. 0-3 down inside half an hour. It could be going better. A couple of minutes later and it’s a lifeline for England as Hemp’s cross is judged by VAR to be handled by Gwinn and awards the struggling Lionesses with a penalty. It’s two penalty specialists, with Georgia taking on AKB. Georgia wins out and it’s a goal back ⚽. 1-3. The Lionesses have the momentum and don’t let up. Russo drops deep and picks out Beth who puts it on a plate for Georgia ⚽. It’s back to 2-3. Can we level before the break. The ref misses a clear corner after an AKB save. Then Toone is clean through but puts it wide. Germany are threatening as well but both defences are wide open. Lucy comes close to levelling before Germany are kept out by Hannah. Hannah makes a great late save tipping it onto and over the bar from a great Dallman blast. Half time and we all need a breather. Phew.

We’re back and Jess Park has replaced Tooney. Germany put the ball in the net on 50 but luckily it’s offside in the build up. Good goal though. Phew. Germany are destroying the England defence, such as it is, and another goal is surely coming. It comes on 70 but it’s not deserved. It’s another penalty but neither player contacts the ball and it’s a VAR howler. Gwinn makes no mistake though. 2-4. It’s end to end and Hemp looks to have scored on 76 as she picks the ball up out wide and runs like she does and fires home. No mistake but she was offside. Bum. Hemp is involved again as her free kick is dropped by AKB. Lucy is on hand to capitalise on the mistake ⚽. 3-4. Germany still threatening. There are still goals in this. Or maybe not as it ends with a loss. An exciting loss though. And breath. Ooops.

It was a good game and the best entertainment we've had watching the Lionesses for a while. A shame the result didn’t go our way but a big learning exercise for the whole group. The defending (what defending) was awful. Too many passes going astray. It was better on other parts of the pitch and if the defence had been a bit more switched on, could have been a great victory. Three goals scored and some very near misses could have been a good result. Two good goals too from good attacking moves almost like the lionesses of old. The 2nd German penalty was a dubious decision but VAR will be VAR. Or not in this case. Plenty of work for Serena before Tuesday. It’s friendly so she has plenty of time to experiment. The crowd was low for a Lionesses game at Wembley. The 47967 being just over half full. It looked more than that but there were plenty of empty seats. Maybe a Friday night is not the best time for holding it. Not exactly family friendly. And nor are the hotel prices if you need to travel and stay. Ticket prices are still great with a £15 a ticket giving a great view of the corner.

POTM: Georgia got the 2 goals but the award goes to Russo 🏅 for leading the attack all night. She didn’t score but it wasn’t for lack of trying and the penalty wasn’t her fault. She was at the heart of everything good so this is well earned.

Ref got some right and some wrong but so did VAR. She let the game flow and the players play which is what we came to watch so well done.

Basil Watch: Met him in the stand at half time and got a good selfie.

Bottle top update: All bottles confiscated. Boo.

See you back in Sussex on Tuesday.

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