Lucia Kendall’s debut England goal and an Alessia Russo penalty meant the European champions beat Ghana 2-0 with a convincing performance on the south coast in their final game of the year.
Kendall registered her first international goal on familiar soil, slotting home after Benedicte Simon failed to clear a Chloe Kelly cross just six minutes into the action. The Southampton academy product, who made over 100 appearances for Saints up until her move to Aston Villa this summer, earned just her third international cap, having also impressed on her debut against Australia in October.
England almost doubled their lead shortly after, but Kelly couldn’t convert a Keira Walsh set-up and sent an effort over the crossbar in the 10th minute.
Doris Boaduwaa was the first of the Ghana players to test Anna Moorhouse’s shot stopping skills, on what was otherwise a quiet night for the England keeper, firing directly at her.
Before the half hour mark, Cynthia Konlan Fiindib kicked away a Missy Bo Kearns effort, before also denying Kendall her second of the night.
England continued to test the reactions of Fiindib, with Taylor Hinds, Miss Bo Kearns, and Aggie Beever-Jones sending dangerous efforts into the box.
Bo Kearns then had a second effort pushed wide by the Ghana keeper, this time from just inside the box, and England appeared frustrated as Mead fired just wide at the bottom right seconds before the break.
By halftime, England had registered 14 shots, with five of those on target, but despite their dominance and fluidity in attack, the alert Fiindib sucessfully stopped them extending their lead.
England started the second half with the same intensity and in the 56th minute Lucy Bronze’s diving header was parried away. Beever Jones’ had a header crash off the crossbar before Fiindib was forced to catch Bo Kearn’s effort on the rebound.
Seconds after being on the pitch, Ghana substitute Princess Darkwa-Marfo made Moorhouse dive low to deny the visitors an equaliser, but it’s likely the effort would have been ruled out for a handball in the build-up.
Manchester City’s Laura Blindkilde Brown then came off the bench for England, and came close to setting up Beever-Jones, but the forward saw another effort go wide at the near post.
Alessia Russo fired home a stoppage time penalty and doubled England’s lead when a late VAR intervention deemed the ball to have hit Comfort Yeboah’s arm.
The scoreline wasn’t quite as impressive as England’s match at Wembley just three days prior, where they beat China 8-0, but England’s attack was undeniably just as threatening.
The 2-0 win rounds off a fantastic year for the Lionesses, having become back-to-back European Champions in Switzerland this summer. With players returning to their clubs, England are next due to be back in action in March 2026, with a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine waiting for them.
Starting XIs:
England: Moorhouse (GK), Bronze, Hinds, Walsh (C), Le Tissier, Wubben-Moy, Park, Kendall, Beever-Jones, Bo Kearns, Kelly
Ghana: Fiindib (GK), Simon, Duah, Asantewaa, Cudjoe, Boye-Hlorkah, Boaduwaa, Kusi, Nyamekye, Yeboah, Boakye (C)
Featured image courtesy of Dan Kerins via Wikimedia Commons. No changes made to this image. License details found here.
