Key events
5 min: Good save by Brooks! Carter drives into the area from left-back and hits a low shot across goal that Brooks half stops with her outstretched left foot. The ball spins behind her and juts wide of the far post.
2 min “As it’s a friendly, perhaps we can think about superficial stuff,” writes Charles Antaki. “Anyway that’s my excuse for asking about the kits for the men’s and women’s International teams; they’ve differed I think for the first time, and for some reason the women have been handed a take on the old Keegan-era Admiral strip, while the men have a simpler and more elegant design. Is there a reason?”
Do you mean why have they used those particular designs? If so, I’m afraid I have no idea. And if it’s a different question, well, there’s a fair chance I’ll have no idea about that either.
1 min England, in their dark blue change strip, kick off from right to left as we watch.
The players line up for the anthems. There’s a good crowd in at the King Power Stadium, where the sun is beating down.
Sarina Wiegman’s pre-match thoughts
I know my starting XI for tonight and of course we’re getting closer. But let’s see what happens tonight and then we’ll decide.
[On Lauren James] She’s done really well. She had a lot of load over the last two weeks and before that, so she’s ready to come on. We’re excited about that.
I wasn’t tempted [to give one of the back-up keepers a cap]. I want Hannah Hampton to play this last game, but if something happens both of the other goalkeepers are ready.
[On picking Jess Carter at left-back] She’s done a great job. We can do different things in defence; tonight it’s Jess.
Jamaica team news
The Reggae Girlz’ team includes Leicester’s Chantelle Swaby, who is playing at her home ground, but they are without the injured Bunny Shaw.
Jamaica (possible 4-3-3) Brooks; Cameron, A Swaby, C Swaby, A Van Zanten; Ingleton, Adamolekun, Primus; K Van Zanten, McKenna, Simmonds.
Substitutes: Bailey, Blades, Cardoza, Mensah, Mitchell, Morgan, Sampson, Thomas, Walker.
Emma Hayes will be writing for the Guardian throughout Euro 2025. Emma Hayes! Here’s her opening column.
England are missing senior, experienced players, which will be a loss. The loss of Millie Bright, to any dressing room, is huge – she’s a leader who will calm a group and also keep them focused. It’s the same with Mary Earps in different capacities. Now it will be interesting to see how England cope if there are any injuries or suspensions – there’s a lack of experience on their bench, which sometimes happens when you’re evolving a team and it’s England’s time to experience that. Not with the starting XI though. In their starters they possess a depth of experience. They will need Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo and Lauren James to be fit, of course, but it is a high-quality, experienced England team.
Euro 2025 team guides: England
Suzanne Wrack considers England’s chances of winning back-to-back European Championships.
Look down the squad list and the midfield looks somewhat light, with only five players named, including Georgia Stanway, who only played 60 minutes of football in 2024-25. “We have to announce it as strikers, midfielders and defenders, but you can move players around into different positions,” said the head coach, Sarina Wiegman. “So it looks like there’s not much depth on paper, but in the team we have enough depth in midfield.”
England team news: Carter and Mead start
If this is Sarina Wiegman’s probable XI to start against France, she’s made a couple of interesting calls: Jess Carter is picked ahead of Niamh Charles at left-back and Beth Mead is preferred to Chloe Kelly as the right-sided forward. For all the problems England have had that’s a strong XI, which includes six of the players who started the Euro 2022 final and three more who came off the bench.
England (4-3-3) Hampton; Bronze, Williamson, Greenwood, Carter; Stanway, Walsh, Toone; Mead, Russo, Hemp.
Substitutes: Charles, James, Le Tissier, Moorhouse, Clinton, Morgan, Agyemang, Kelly, Beever-Jones, Park, Keating, Wubben-Moy.
Tom Garry on the return of Lauren James, who is a helluva card for England to play from the bench as she recovers from injury
Preamble
Reality doesn’t always bite. Sometimes a gentle nuzzle is enough to make us aware that things are about to get real. England’s meeting with Jamaica at the King Power Stadium today should be a gentle nuzzle of a football match, their first and last warm-up game for Euro 2025.
And then reality will plunge its molars into at least one of England, France and the Netherlands. Those three join Wales in this year’s group of death, with England playing France in a scarily important opening game on Saturday evening.
In some cultures England’s situation would be described as sub-optimal, especially given the recent insecurity caused the retirement or withdrawal of Millie Bright, Mary Earps and Fran Kirby. But their first XI remains extremely strong, capable of giving any team a game, and if their morale is healthy they have a decent chance of winning Euro 2025.
As well as being the last pitstop before things get real, today’s game should give us a decent idea of the collective morale. In modern sport there are lies, damned lies and press conferences. But the truth always emerges on the field.
Kick off 5pm.
