London (AFP) – England and the United States’ women played out a 0-0 draw at Wembley on Saturday as a highly-anticipated clash between the two highest ranked sides in the world fell flat. Former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes was denied victory on her return to London as the USA had a goal ruled out for offside when captain Lindsey Horan poked in Rose Lavelle’s cross.
The visitors also had a penalty overturned by a VAR review in the second half as the referee saw Alex Greenwood had blocked a shot with her chest and not her hand as initially thought. European champions England were more solid than in a thrilling 4-3 defeat to Germany last month, but that came at the cost of creativity as they rarely threatened in front of a 78,000 crowd.
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“You can be two things at once. I am a proud English woman who is proud to coach America,” said Hayes, who led the USA to Olympic gold earlier this year in his first major tournament since moving across the Atlantic. “We had a goal disallowed, it was never a penalty, but you saw the entries into the final third it was us more than them. We are at a developmental stage and I am proud of the way we played.”
England are building towards their defence of the Euros in Switzerland next year and Sarina Wiegman said she was encouraged by the performance. “This shows where we are at and we need to keep improving,” she said. “It is November now. This is good but we want to be better again. We have to be better again.”
England take on Switzerland, while the USA travel to the Netherlands in friendlies on Tuesday.
© 2024 AFP
