England 3-0 Australia: Agyemang injury puts dampener on Lionesses win
An early red card set England up for a dominant win over Australia, but there were two second-half injury concerns for the Lionesses.
Michelle Agyemang was forced off with an apparent knee injury that overshadowed a routine 3-0 England win over 10-player Australia on Tuesday.
The teenage forward left the Pride Park pitch on a stretcher with her head in her hands after going down in the second half of the friendly clash.
And Agyemang was followed down the tunnel by Aggie Beever-Jones, who was able to walk from the pitch but had been limping heavily even before her team-mate suffered a potentially serious setback.
Everything had gone to plan for England until those two late blows, with Beever-Jones starring in the Lionesses' first win since the Euros, having lost their previously friendly against Brazil last week.
The Chelsea forward had fired a warning shot when she had an early goal ruled out for offside, but Australia failed to heed that warning.
Alanna Kennedy soon gifted the ball to Alessia Russo and was shown a straight red card for pulling the striker down. The midfielder was doubly punished as Beever-Jones then lashed in the opener following the subsequent free-kick.
Lucy Bronze, playing on her 34th birthday, slid in a second, and England cruised then until Agyemang's misfortune.
Their final change was used in replacing the substitute, meaning the home side also finished with 10 players when Beever-Jones could not continue.
England remained on the front foot, though, and a stoppage-time VAR review led to Katrina Gorry being penalised for a foul on Missy Kearns that allowed Georgia Stanway to dispatch a last-gasp spot-kick for the third.
Data debrief: Kennedy ensures no contest
While Sarina Wiegman would have been keen to see an England win after the disappointment against Brazil, she might also have hoped to see her side tested rather more than they were here.
England were already on top before Kennedy's moment of madness completely skewed the contest in the home team's favour, having amassed 2.7 expected goals to Australia's meagre 0.12 in a one-sided clash.
The Lionesses may have only scored three times, but they attempted 29 shots, the most against Australia on Opta record (since 2016). The previous most had seen 27 Norway shots at the 2019 Women's World Cup – improbably another match in which Kennedy was sent off.
