WOMEN'S TEAM

International Blues: Busy Break For Everton Women

It has been a packed week for Everton Women's international contingent.

From emphatic wins to familiar faces, everything you need to know on how our Blues got on can be found below.

Denmark

Rikke Sevecke enjoyed a successful international break with the Danes.

The Everton defender started both matches and maintained a clean sheet in the 8-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina and guided the side for Tuesday night’s 5-1 win away to Montenegro.

Denmark maintain their 100 per cent start for the FIFA Women’s World Cup UEFA qualifiers with an incredible 28 goals scored and one conceded record in their opening four matches.

England (First Team, Under-23s, Under-19s)

The Lionesses continued with their dominant start to the World Cup qualifying campaign with comprehensive wins over Northern Ireland and Latvia.

England beat the Northern Irish 4-0 at Wembley and put 10 goals past Latvia last night.

Sandy MacIver was amongst the stars who prepared for both encounters and named on the bench for each win.

For England’s Under-23s, they spent the international break on a training camp before flying to Belgium for a friendly encounter.

The young Lionesses edged past the hosts in a 1-0 win with Katie Robinson coming off the bench to give the visitors the win.

Gabrielle George started for England and maintained a clean sheet, while Megan Finnigan and Poppy Pattinson trained with the group throughout the camp and were named on the bench.

Finally, Grace Clinton returns to USM Finch Farm off the back of an excellent international break with England Under-19s.

The young Blues star helped England to three wins in round one of the UEFA European Women’s Under-19 Championship.

The tournament – which was redesigned in the style of the UEFA Nations League to the COVID-19 pandemic impact – saw England record wins over the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Switzerland.

Clinton slotted a hat-trick past the Northern Irish hosts in an 8-1 win and capped off the camp with the only goal of the game in the win over Switzerland.

France

Kenza Dali was on target for both of France’s wins over the international window as Les Blues beat Estonia and Kazakhstan.

It was a night to remember for the French on Friday as they slotted 11 goals without return against Estonia. Dali making sure to get on the act with the final goal of the game in the 90th minute.

The team then travelled to Nur-Sultan for their second win of the break as the Everton midfielder doubled the visitors lead with France’s second in a 5-0 win.

Germany

Leonie Maier’s Germany recorded back-to-back wins over Israel over the international break to maintain their winning start to the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Maier was left as an unused substitute during the 1-0 away win Petah Tikva before returning to the starting line-up for a 7-0 win at the Stadion Essen.

Italy

Similar to a lot of our Blues on international duty, Aurora Galli was amongst an Italian side that recorded two wins over the last week.

Galli was an unused substitute for the win over Croatia before starting in the 5-0 win away to Lithuania on Tuesday evening.

Northern Ireland

After missing out on Northern Ireland’s defeat to England due to personal reasons, Simone Magill marked her return to international football last night.

The Blues veteran came off the bench for the final 10 minutes as the hosts narrowly missed out on a win after Austria scored in injury team to share the spoils in a 2-2 draw.

Republic of Ireland

Courtney Brosnan began Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign a narrow 1-0 defeat against Sweden as an own goal from Louise Quinn was the only difference on the night between the two sides.

Despite the defeat, Brosnan was one of Ireland’s standout players on the night and her confidence was carried into their next match away in Helsinki.

The Irish stars left Finland with their first three points of the qualifying campaign as they beat the hosts 2-1 on the night.

Scotland

Similar to their male counterpart, the Scotland Women’s national team left it late at Hampden Park to seal the win and three points in the World Cup qualifying campaign.

A 90th minute winner from Rachel Corsie capped off a 2-1 win over Hungary.

Claire Emslie led the line for Scotland on the night and Lucy Graham got 25 minutes under her belt on her return to the national side.

Both players started for the defeat to Sweden with Lucy Graham completing the 90 minutes and Emslie rested for the final half hour.

Sweden

For our international Swedes, they were up against a few familiar faces over the break.

Hanna Bennison was up against Club teammate, Courtney Brosnan during Sweden’s win over the Republic of Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers.

The Swedes then travelled to Scotland to face off against Emslie and Graham in a friendly held in Paisley.

Anna Anvegård led the line for the visitors and Bennison made an appearance off the bench. Nathalie Björn an unused substitute.

The hosts were resilient in their game plan but two late strikes from the Swedes meant they finished their international break with two wins.